China Merchants Bank, the country's sixth-largest lender, said its loans to individuals would grow slowly for the rest of the year and into next year because of the weakening economy.

China Merchants Bank said it extended 28 billion yuan ($4.1 billion) in new loans to individuals for them to buy cars and homes or to run small businesses in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 60 billion yuan in all of last year.

"Loan growth this year will be slower," Zhao Xiaojun, who is in charge of loans to individuals, said on the sideline of a news conference to launch a new service to small business owners.

Liu Jianjun, retail banking manager, echoed her views, adding that "growth next year will not be very high as many home buyers are still looking on."

The State Council, China's cabinet, on Sunday urged banks to lend more to support economic growth and shifted to an "appropriately easy" monetary policy to cushion the impact of global financial crisis.

Liu said his bank would do all it could to increase loans in 2009 without sacrificing risk control.

"We will spare no efforts to extend loans to individuals. As long as there is market demand, we will offer ample supply of credit," Liu said. "But we will not lower our threshold, otherwise mounting bad loans will destroy our bank."

The bank's net profit rose by half in the third quarter from a year earlier, hitting 5.75 billion yuan.