Avoid a sharp brake

To dwarf the Chinese government's 4-trillion-yuan (US$586 billion) stimulus package, Chinese banks have extended new loans of 4.58 trillion yuan (US$671 billion) in the first quarter.

Such a credit boom makes it almost certain that China is going to see the biggest credit expansion in history this year.

The central government has once set a target of at least 5 trillion yuan of new loans to back its pursuit of 8 percent growth of the national economy.