Private bank deposits on the Chinese mainland grew by 15.9 percent year-on-year to 11.9 trillion yuan (US$1.45 trillion) by the end of April, according to the country's central bank.

According to the figures released by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, the growth rate of the outstanding banking deposits was 2.5 percentage points lower than that for the same period of the previous year.

That represents 32.3 billion yuan (US$3.9 billion) in newly added bank deposits, which the central bank said was caused by the issuance of the State treasury bonds and fund products in large volume in April, whose returns are higher than the interest rates.

By the end of April, all banking institutions on the mainland reported 22.24 trillion yuan (US$2.71 trillion) in outstanding bank deposits in Chinese currency, up 20.4 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2004)