By the end of 2018, the non-performing loan balance of commercial banks was 2 trillion yuan, with the non-performing rate recording 1.89%. This is an increase of about 29 million yuan from 2017 and a rise of 0.15 percentage points, hitting new highs in ten years, Yicai.com reported.
However, ten provinces have reversed the trend and saw decreases in NPLs, including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Guizhou.
By end of 2018, Guangdong (excluding Shenzhen city), the province that contributes the most to the national GDP, has seen the NPL rate falling by 17.1% from the beginning of the year.
As for Zhejiang (excluding Ningbo city), where NPLs were exposed first, the quality of its assets has returned to its best level in five years. The balance of NPLs in Zhejiang was 120.9 billion yuan and the NPL rate was 1.15% by end of 2018, declining close to 18.7% and 30%, respectively.