China’s March bank lending seen surging on post-holiday rebound: Reuters poll

By Shi Bu and Kevin Yao

BEIJING, April 9 (Reuters) – Chinese banks likely extended significantly more new loans in March than in February, according to a Reuters poll ​on Thursday, driven by improved credit demand and a ‌seasonal rebound.

Banks in China are expected to have issued around 3.4 trillion yuan ($497.61 billion) in net new yuan loans last month, up sharply from the 900 billion yuan in February, based on the average estimate of ‌17 ​economists polled by Reuters.

March is typically a ⁠strong month for lending, ⁠as activity recovers after the Chinese New Year lull and banks accelerate loan issuance to meet first-quarter targets.

($1 = 6.8327 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Shi Bu, Kevin Yao; Polling by Renusri K and Rahul Trivedi in Bengaluru and Jing Wang in Shanghai; Editing ​by Eileen Soreng)