(ECNS) -- Commercial banks located in China's eastern coastal areas to central and northeastern regions are all facing an increasing number of non-performing loans, with the highest ratio hitting an alarming five percent, China Business News has reported.
Among 10 provinces that disclosed data, Henan, Shanxi, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces reported non-performing loan ratios above three percent, with Shanxi standing at 4.75 percent and Heilongjiang at 3.6 percent. Yunnan province saw a 2.16 percent non-performing loan ratio, up 1 percentage point from last year.
Non-performing loan ratios in the four provinces mentioned above were higher than the coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang in 2015.
Insiders said central and northeastern regions have entered a peak period of rising non-performing loan ratios and growth rates, but their total amount of bad loans were relatively smaller than in the coastal regions.
A report by CITIC Bank said central and western China recorded the quickest growth of non-performing loan ratios in 2015, led by 80 percent in the undeveloped western regions.
Non-performing loans in Henan Province's banking sector climbed to 100 billion yuan ($15.3 billion) by August 2015, up 53 billion yuan from the beginning of the year, official data showed.
An analyst said Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and Jilin suffered from a sluggish energy sector and began to accumulate a higher non-performing loan ratio after the steel and coal industries borrowed heavily. The economy in coal-rich Shanxi Province grew by 3.1 percent in 2015.
China's non-performing loans reached a 10-year high of 1.27 trillion yuan at the end of 2015, the country's banking regulator reported. The average commercial bank non-performing loan ratio rose to 1.67 percent at the end of December.
