Email to Friends
Comment (The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest lender by market value, said on Wednesday it would maintain a "reasonable and balanced" lending rate, in a move to ease mounting concerns about possible credit cuts.
"The ICBC will not rush to lend, nor will it halt lending," the bank said in a statement to the media.
The ICBC would stick to a "prudent" credit policy and maintain a reasonable and balanced pace of lending based on real demand and its own ability to handle financial risks, the statement said.
The statement said loan growth in early and mid-January was "a little fast" as many ongoing projects needed funds, but the lending pace had stabilized since, as a concentrated volume of existing loans had come due and some credit card debts had been repaid.
To prevent economic overheating, the government last week announced it would restrict its overall credit growth to 7.5 trillion yuan (1.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2010, compar...
