China's credit expansion in March kept up rapid growth, the Economic Observer learned.

According to a source close to the matter, the new loans in March reached 1.3 trillion yuan, some 21 % or 230 billion yuan higher than the February's. Among the loans, bill financing made up a high proportion.

The above source said the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the country's banking watchdog, and the central bank held different views on the rapid loan growth. The CBRC tended to rein in credit expansion, while the central bank thought that banks issuing loans was a business activity, and that the supervising agency should not intervene.

Together with additional loans in January and February, new loans in the first three months of 2009 amounted to 3.99 trillion yuan. The figure stood at nearly 74% of the total Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised to issue in 2009 at the country's top legislative meeting in early March.