Agricultural Bank of China ups loan support to county-level areas

BEIJING -- Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's four big state-owned lenders, has enhanced loan issuance to support the development of China's county-level areas, the bank has confirmed.

The bank said its outstanding loans for county-level areas had totaled 8.35 trillion yuan (about 1.16 trillion U.S. dollars) by the end of June, up 13.9 percent from the beginning of this year.

More loans have been tilted toward key areas to step up support for the modern industrial system, said the bank.

As of the end of June, outstanding loans for the manufacturing sector had climbed 26.6 percent from the beginning of the year to 2.91 trillion yuan, while that for strategic emerging industries exceeded 1.8 trillion yuan, increasing by over 40 percent from the beginning of the year, it added.

In this period, the balance of green credit climbed 34.4 percent from the beginning of the year to 3.62 trillion yuan, according to the bank.

With more pro-growth policies, China's economy will accelerate recovery, driving more effective credit demand, said Fu Wanjun, president of the bank.