This study analyzes the inter-provincial distribution of state bank loans in mainland China between 1978 and 1997. There are two major findings in this paper: (1)The siphoning of savings deposit from the rural/agricultural sector into the urban/industrial sector is actually a part of the national credit plan’s redistribution of funds rather than a re-allocation of funds within a single province. (2) Provinces with higher proportion of industrial output from state-owned enterprises (SOE) and provinces with lower SOE profit growth rates tend to receive higher loan quotas. During the period under study, state banks in mainland China tend to transfer fast growing resident savings deposit into low interest loans to urban SOEs whose profitability have been declining. SOEs in the three metropolitan areas of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai are the major beneficiaries.
