China's bank loan will expand by 20 to 22 percent in 2010 to fuel the economic recovery, a leading Chinese bank predicted Sunday.

The new yuan credit balance issued by the commercial lenders is expected to reach 8 to 9 trillion yuan next year, according to the China Banking Development Report issued by the Bank of Communications, the nation's fifth largest commercial lender.

Chinese banks extended a record 8.67 trillion yuan in the first three quarters in 2009, up 30 percent year-on- year, to echo government's call for aggressive lending to power the economic growth.

The report said the cooling-down of the loan increase depends on the government's policy fine-tuning and the expected slowing fixed-asset investment.

Bill financing, a short-term credit which easily go to the speculative stock market other than the real economy, is forecasted to fall next year after regulator's warnings, said the report.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2009)