A nationwide questionnaire of bankers released Thursday by China's central bank showed that the bankers' confidence index for macro economy and bank performance in the third quarter had continued rising, and expectations for bank performance in the fourth quarter had been improved.

Bankers' confidence index for macro economy stood at 55.4 percent in the third quarter, up 15.4 percentage points than that in the second quarter. The macro economic expectation index rose 6.8 percentage points to reach 45.9 percent, according to the survey.

The survey showed 39.3 percent of the bankers believed the current monetary policy was "relatively loose", 9.7 percentage points lower than in the second quarter. Around 55.9 percent bankers predicted monetary policy would stay unchanged in the fourth quarter.

The loan demand index was 68 percent, slightly down 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter. By sector, loan demand by agriculture and non-manufacturing industry dropped 1.2 and 0.7 percentage points from those in the second quarter.

The performance index of the banking industry added 2 percentage points from the previous quarter to 66.5 percent. The banking industry expectation index was 67.9 percent, 1.8 percentage points higher than that of the second quarter.

The questionnaire was a systematic quarterly statistical investigation sent to the country's 2,900 banking institutions. It was jointly conducted by the People's Bank of China and the National Bureau of Statistics.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2009)