SteelOrbis Shanghai
Chinese financial institutions issued an impressive total of RMB 740 billion ($108.3 billion) in new local-currency loans in December 2008, marking a monthly high for the year in question. Aggregate loans issued in 2008 came to slightly less than RMB 5,000 billion ($732 billion).
Following the tight monetary policy promulgated by the Chinese government from the end of 2007, newly-issued loans declined to RMB 300 billion ($44 billion) in October 2008 from RMB 803.6 billion ($117.7 billion) in January of the same year. Up until mid-2008, China's central bank kept maintained tight control over the levels of credit issued by the commercial banks, With the subsequent loosening of the central bank's monetary control policy, commercial banks' newly-issued loans rose sharply to RMB 476.9 billon ($69.8 billion) in November, before reaching their monthly peak for the year in December.