China's new lending in March was expected to reach about the same level as 700.1 billion yuan (US$102.5 billion) in February, the Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday.

"Judging from loans our bank issued this month, new lending in March would remain more or less the same as last month," the newspaper quoted a credit officer from a state-owned bank as saying.

Announcements made by top officials from other banks pointed to the same trend which saw no remarkable fluctuations in March's loan growth, the newspaper said.

Chinese banks extended 700.1 billion yuan in new loans in February, about half the value of January and 371.4 billion yuan less than total loans extended in the same month in 2009.

Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier this month that China would cut its bank lending target in 2010 to 7.5 trillion yuan, after new loans nearly doubled in 2009 from the previous year to 9.59 trillion yuan.