New loans granted by China's "Big Four" banks in July totaled 205.6 billion yuan($ 31.98 billion), 7.35 billion yuan more than in June, China Securities Journal reported.

The paper said banks' new lending in July is predicted to be between 550 billion yuan and 650 billion yuan.

Early this year, People's Bank of China had set the target of banks' new loans at between 7 - 7.5 trillion yuan for 2011.

As the amount of credit for the second half of the year accounts for 40 percent of the year's total, growth of new lending will slow down in the remaining months of the year, the paper quoted an unnamed analyst as saying.

China's "Big Four" banks are Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China.