Chinese companies raised a mountain of money from bank loans and the stock market last year as China's rapid economic growth generated a huge demand for capital.

Domestic non-financial institutions raised 3.99 trillion yuan (511.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, up 30 percent year-on-year, according to a monetary policy report released by the central bank.

Bank loans, which remained by far the largest source of financing for Chinese companies, rose 33 percent to 3.27 trillion yuan.

Stock markets contributed a further 224.6 billion yuan to these non-financial institutions, compared with 105.3 billion yuan in 2005.

Chinese companies opted for the yuan-denominated A-share market as their first choice for direct financing as the country's shareholding reforms progressed and the capital market revived, according to Shanghai Securities News.

Last year Chinese companies raised a record 559 billion yuan from domestic and overseas stock markets, up 197 percent. About 43 percent, or 242 billion yuan came from the A-share market.

Companies were less successful in raising money via corporate bonds because the Chinese bond market lags behind the stock market, said the report.

Even though corporate bond subscriptions increased 12.7 percent to 226.6 billion yuan last year, their contribution to total capital raised by Chinese companies dropped 0.9 percentage points to 5.7 percent.

Source: Xinhua