China's state-owned banks have become a main engine of the global recovery, financing the construction of copper mines, purchase of airplanes, expansion of retail stores and other projects even as their U.S. and European counterparts scale back lending. The surge in Chinese lending, triple the 2008 rate, has provided a lifeline to international corporations during the worst recession in decades, and it reflects a diversification in China's global economic role beyond its holdings of vast amounts of U.S. government debt. Over the first nine months of 2009, new lending by Chinese banks has injected $1.3 trillion into the world economy, according to statistics from the People's Bank of China, which functions as China's central bank. The beneficiaries have included U.S.-based Southwest Airlines, the Netherlands' Aercap airplane leasing company, Civil Aviation Authority in Dubai, and Foster's brewery and Woolworths supermarket chain in Australia. China's banks have been signing so many new loan contracts so quickly that the country's banking regulatory commission recently warned them to avoid the "blind" pursuit of size lest they run into the same troubles as their Western counterparts.
China's state-owned banks have become a main engine of the global recovery, financing the construction of copper mines, purchase of airplanes, expansion of retail stores and other projects even as their U.S. and European counterparts scale back lending.
The surge in Chinese lending, triple the 2008 rate, has provided a lifeline to international corporations during the worst recession in decades, and it reflects a diversification in China's global economic role beyond its holdings of vast amounts of U.S. government debt.
Over the first nine months of 2009, new lending by Chinese banks has injected $1.3 trillion into the world economy, according to statistics from the People's Bank of China, which functions as China's central bank. The beneficiaries have included U.S.-based Southwest Airlines, the Netherlands' Aercap airplane leasing company, Civil Aviation Authority in Dubai, and Foster's brewery and Woolworths supermarket chain in Australia.
China's banks have been signing so many new loan contracts so quickly that the country's banking regulatory commission recently warned them to avoid the "blind" pursuit of size lest they run into the same troubles as their Western counterparts.
