The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said in a report Thursday the overall growth of renminbi-denominated savings deposits slowed last year.

The outstanding yuan savings deposits at financial institutions in China stood at 24.1 trillion yuan (2.9 trillion US dollars) by the end of last year, 3.33 trillion yuan (402.2 billion dollars) more that at the beginning of the year. The increment fell by a year-on-year 387.1 billion yuan (46.8 billion dollars).

The report said the slower growth of local currency deposits resulted from a fairly low interest rate levels and steep price hikes, which dampened people's wishes to deposit money in banks.

Since the central bank raised the interest rate on Oct. 29, China's first hike in nearly a decade, Chinese people had been putting more money back into banks, it said, citing that savings deposits rose a year-on-year 76.3 billion yuan (9.2 billion dollars) and 55.5 billion yuan (6.7 billion dollars) last November and December, respectively.