Construction Bank Completes Lending Plan in AdvanceThe China Construction Bank, one of the country's four big commercial banks, announced Wednesday that it had accomplished its annual lending target in the first three quarters this year.The total loan the bank granted in the nine months was 29 percent more than that of its annual plan set at the beginning of the year, said a bank spokesman. The latest figures show that from January to September, the bank's outstanding loans had reached 1.3083 trillion yuan, up 175 billion yuan from at the end of 1999, and 58 billion yuan more than that a year earlier. The spokesman attributed the hefty increase to a shift in the lending period from the usual fourth quarter to more balanced lending throughout the whole year. He said that this year, the bank has focused its lending on comparatively developed coastal areas and a number of promising industries, such as the electronics industry, communications, petrochemicals, postal and telecommunications, and electricity. The bank has also increased housing and individual consumption loans by 60.2 billion yuan, which was 150 percent more than the same period of last year. In the first three quarters, the bank earned a profit of 6.8 billion yuan, an increase of 14 billion yuan from a year earlier. |
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