China will see a slightly increase in new bank loans in 2012 from this year's quota of 7.5 trillion yuan (US$1.18 trillion), but the government will maintain lending curbs on the property sector, the China Business News reported on Monday, citing an official from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

"The growth in new loans should rise depending on economic growth. But I don't think it will be too different from what we have this year," Yan Qingming, assistant to the chairman of CBRC, was quoted as saying.

Yan also said the government would continue to restrict bank lending to the property sector next year and that Beijing will closely monitor property-loan risks as prices fall.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, announced on November 11 that the nation's new yuan-denominated lending reached 586.8 billion yuan (92.7 billion U.S. dollars) in October, up 17.5 billion yuan year-on-year.

Chinese banks extended a total of 6.3 trillion yuan in new local currency loans in the first 10 months of 2011, still far below the estimated annual credit quota of 7.5 trillion yuan set at the beginning of this year.