New loans hit record low in Oct

New loans issued by China's Big Four banks in October hit a record low level this year due to tightened liquidities, Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.

The four banks, namely the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China, lent a total of 182 billion yuan ($29.85 billion) in new loans last month, a decline of 18 percent compared with the previous month, according to the newspaper report.

Industry watchers were quoted by the newspaper as saying that the total new lending by all financial institutions in October was expected to reach between 500 billion yuan ($82.05 billion) and 600 billion yuan.