China’s New Bank Loans Grew 6.8% Last Year, PBOC Says

China’s banks extended 21.31 trillion yuan ($3.15 trillion) in new yuan-denominated loans in 2022, up 6.8% from 19.95 trillion yuan in 2021, mainly driven by an uptick in corporate borrowing, a report released by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Friday showed.

Businesses and public institutions borrowed 16.77 trillion yuan in new loans in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 4.63 trillion and accounting for nearly 80% of the total increase. New medium- and long-term lending provided to companies and public institutions offered a significant boost, surging 19.6% to 11.05 trillion yuan in 2022 from the previous year, according to the central bank.