China's central bank reaffirmed on Wednesday it will stick to its moderately easy monetary policy to consolidate the country's economic recovery.

The bank also said it would use market tools to guide appropriate lending growth during the second half of this year.

The major task was to continue fostering steady economic growth by maintaining credit policy continuity and stability as the economy was in a crucial phase, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in its second quarter monetary policy report on Wednesday.

China's economy expanded 7.9 percent from a year earlier during the quarter, up from 6.1 percent in the first three months, boosted by governmental fiscal and monetary policies put into place last year.

Chinese banks advanced a record 7.37 trillion yuan (US$1.08 trillion) in new loans during the first half of the year, exceeding the full year target of 5 trillion yuan.

The PBOC said new loans to home buyers in the first half rose by 263.3 billion yuan year on year to 479.3 billion yuan, boosted by an upbeat property market performance in China in the first half.

Home sales began to pick up after the Spring Festival and prices have edged upward in recent months in most of China's large and medium-sized cities.

New credit growth for property developers increased by 221 billion yuan year on year to 403.9 billion yuan.

"Although there are signs of stabilization in the economies of the United States, Europe and Japan, their ups and downs of the economies will not end in the short term," said the PBOC. China's exports growth is also expected to slow.

Government figures show Chinese exports plummeted 21.8 percent to US$521.5 billion through the January-June period year on year, the sharpest decrease in a decade after global demand for China's goods slowed.

The bank said domestic, export-oriented enterprises should improve their products mix and competitiveness and work on opening up emerging export markets that have big growth potential.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2009)