Credit card debt at least six months overdue in China rose 126.5 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2009 to 7.43 billion yuan (1.09 billion U.S. dollars), the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said Monday.

Debt overdue by six months or more accounted for 3.4 percent of the total outstanding credit card debt at the end of the third quarter, up 0.3 percentage points from the end of the second quarter.

The bank warned of potential risks of increasing overdue credit card debt as banks expanded credit card business.

By the end of Sept. 30, China's banks had issued 175 million credit cards, up 33.3 percent from the same period last year.

In the second quarter of 2009, credit card debt at least six months overdue rose 131.3 percent from a year earlier to 5.77 billion yuan.

In the first quarter of 2009, credit card debt at least six months overdue rose 133.1 percent from a year earlier to 4.97 billion yuan.