China's credit card debt that was at least six months overdue rose 133.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 4.97 billion yuan (US$727.67 million), the People's Bank of China, or the central bank, said in a report on June 22.

Debt overdue by six months or more accounted for 3 percent of the total outstanding credit card debt at the end of March, or 0.6 percentage point more than in the same period last year, the report said.

It warned of potential risks of the increasing overdue credit card debt as financial institutions expanded their credit card business.

As of March 31, Chinese banks had issued more than 150 million credit cards, or 0.11 card per person, up 42.9 percent year-on-year. But Chinese consumers still have relatively few credit cards, compared with 4.39 per person in the United States and 0.95 in Brazil.

Outstanding credit card loans rose 87.6 percent year-on-year to 165.86 billion yuan at the end of March.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2009)