China’s Property Sector Loans Contract for First Time on Record

(Bloomberg) — China’s outstanding property loans fell on a yearly basis for the first time on record, underlining stress in the sector despite official assurances of stabilizing declines.

The outstanding amount of loans to the property sector fell 100 billion yuan to 53.19 trillion yuan ($7.3 trillion) at the end of September compared with the level a year earlier, according to a statement from the People’s Bank of China on Wednesday. That’s the first year-on-year drop in the data going back to 2005.