Economics
China Asks Banks to Curtail Credit for Rest of Year
- PBOC wants new loans to stay around 2020 levels, people say
- Officials are shifting attention from pandemic to bubble risks
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China’s central bank asked the nation’s major lenders to curtail loan growth for the rest of this year after a surge in the first two months stoked bubble risks, according to people familiar with the matter.
At a meeting with the People’s Bank of China on March 22, banks were told to keep new advances in 2021 at roughly the same level as last year, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Some foreign banks were also urged to rein in additional lending through so-called window guidance recently after ramping up their balance sheets in 2020, one of the people said.