Xinhua: CANBERRA: Growth in Australian bank lending to China has slowed after a period of accelerated expansion as foreign banks take a more cautious approach.
Australian media reported Monday that the annual growth rate of Australian bank exposure to China dropped 10 per cent last year from a high of 70 per cent in 2013. Data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) showed that in the December quarter, the banks' exposure dropped 700 million US dollars to 33.7 billion US dollars.
The surge in international lending to China over the past few years, that was primarily driven by lending to banks, was experiencing a global slowdown, the BIS report said.
"Claims on China contracted by 51 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter of 2014, bringing down their year-on-year growth rate to 21 per cent from 40 per cent at end September 2014," the 
report said.
Across emerging Asia-Pacific nations, cross-border lending increased by 214 billion US dollars last year, with Indonesia leading the charge with 19 per cent growth.