A report from the central bank shows that China's Renminbi saving deposits reached 15.97 trillion yuan at the end of November. This is a 15.3 percent year-on-year rise.

The rate of increase was 0.2 percent lower than that in October, said the report released Thursday by the People's Bank of China.

New saving deposits in November were 168.3 billion yuan which is only 600 million yuan more than that of November last year.

In October this year saving deposits dropped 7.6 billion yuan from the September figure.

This was the first decline since June 2001. The central bank explained that active stock trading had drained some of the saving deposits.

China's benchmark Composite Stock Index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange closed at a record high 2,249.11 points on Thursday.?

The country has been experiencing a high rate of saving and the government has urged people to spend more and save less in order to curb soaring investment.

The report also showed that all Chinese saving deposits in RMB and foreign currencies reached 16.76 trillion yuan at the end of November. This is up 14.4 percent year-on-year. (US$1 = 7.82 yuan)

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2006)