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CBRC: Banking can withstand property price down

Updated: 2011-07-29 21:01

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)

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The banking industry will not be affected even if Chinese property prices drop 50 percent, according to a report from Chinese Central Television (CCTV) Thursday.

Liu Mingkang, Chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission (BRC), speaking during an interview with CCTV-13 on Thursday, said results of a new round of real-estate loans show the Chinese banking industry is capable of dealing with non-performing loans, and able to withstand a sudden fall in property prices.

"The worries and suspicions that China's banking industry will be dragged down by real estate developers are groundless and impossible,"said Liu.

Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) show during the first half year of 2011 that national real-estate market investments exceeded 262.5 trillion yuan ($40.7 trillion), while the issued property loans from banks were 79.12 trillion yuan ($12.3 trillion), a 43 percent drop compared to 2010.

"The bank-issued loans in the real-estate sector have shrunk to 30 percent," Liu pointed out.

The Overall Weighted Average Capital Adequacy Rate of China's commercial banks is 12.2%, a continuous rise from the previous year. "This also demonstrates the growing capacity the Chinese banking industry has to withstand such pressures," said Liu.

According to Liu, the BRC has a 1.3 trillion yuan ($200 billion) provision for the real estate loan sector in 2011.

"That's enough for banks to withstand any possible market change."

He also pointed out that the real-estate loan stress test was for a reference for the banking industry. It "does not represent the BRC's prediction on real-estate trends."

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