China's banks disbursed the most loans in any month in four years in January, a surge that suggests the world's second-biggest economy may not be cooling as much as some fear. Chinese banks lent 1.32 trillion yuan ($217.6 billion) worth of new yuan loans in January, beating a 1.1 trillion yuan forecast and nearly three times December's level, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on Saturday on its website. It is usual for loans to spike in January when banks try to lend as much as they can to grab market share, but last month's surge was still the largest since January 2010. Saturday's figures may assuage ... (full story)