Coal sector's woes drive up bad loans

Bad loans jumped in the western region of China last year mainly because of a glut of coal supply that drove prices of the fuel sharply lower, causing mining companies to lose money and in some cases default on their debt.

The results of the four largest State-owned commercial banks by assets show that the problem of nonperforming loans expanded in 2014 from the Yangtze and Pearl river regions into western China.

Agricultural Bank of China Ltd's NPLs in the western region surged to 30.33 billion yuan ($4.89 billion) last year from 19.52 billion yuan a year earlier. Bad loans in western China accounted for 24.3 percent of the bank's total NPLs, and its NPL ratio in that area was 1.68 percent, up 45 basis points.