Banks in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, made over 3.93 billion yuan (US$474 million) in profits in the first 11 months of 2000, up 40 percent from the same period of 1999.
Sources from the People's Bank of China Guangzhou Branch said that the profit was 1.16 billion yuan (US$139 million) more than that in 1999.
Experts believe that growing profits are the result of the improved economic situation of Guangzhou and intensified supervisory management over financial services in the city.
State-owned banks in the city recorded profits of 3.51 billion yuan (US$422 million) from January to November last year, up 50 percent from the same period of 1999.
By the end of November, the outstanding of deposit in Chinese currency and foreign exchanges equaled 608 billion yuan (US$73 billion), accounting for 30 percent of the aggregate volume of deposit of Guangdong, Hainan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
In the meantime, the volume of unpaid loans offered by local banks reached 399.23 billion yuan (US$48.09 billion), up 14.26 percent from that at the beginning of last year and higher than the growth rate of deposit savings, said the local sources.
(Xinhua 01/06/2001)
