Commercial banks operating in China see declines in both bad loans and their ratio to total outstanding loans in the first half, said China's banking regulator Friday.

At the end of June, non-performing loans (NPLs) by commercial banks in China, including state-owned commercial banks, share-holding commercial banks and foreign-funded banks, totaled 518.13 billion yuan (75.86 billion U.S. dollars), down 42.2 billion yuan from the beginning of this year.

The NPL ratio was 1.77 percent, down 0.65 percentage points, compared with the beginning of the year, said the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) in a statement.

Outstanding bad loans of state-owned banks in China totaled 376.35 billion yuan at the end of June, down 44.48 billion yuan from the beginning of this year. Their NPL ratio fell 0.81 percentage points to 1.99 percent.

New bank loans in the first half hit 7.37 trillion yuan, 4.92 trillion yuan more than the first half last year, according to the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2009)