The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank), one of China's three policy banks, said Friday that it had approved 417.7 billion yuan ($61.16 billion) of

loans in the first half year.

The figure was about 129.9 percent up from the same period of 2008.

The outstanding loans were 517.6 billion yuan by the end of June, about 66.4 billion yuan more than that at the beginning of 2009, the bank said.

The non-performing loans rate was 1.28 percent, down 0.24 percentage points from the beginning of 2009, the bank said.

China's new yuan-denominated loans stood at 1.53 trillion yuan in June, the People's Bank of China said Wednesday.

The June figure brought new yuan-denominated loans in the first half of the year to 7.37 trillion yuan, far exceeding the full-year target of 5 trillion

yuan.

Source: Xinhua 2009-7-11