BEIJING - Chinese non-performing loans grew to 1.43 trillion yuan ($234.1 billion) and the bad loan rate rose to 1.6 percent by the end of 2014, the banking regulator announced Thursday.

The banking sector's non-performing loans and bad loan ratio were 1.18 trillion yuan and 1.49 percent respectively by the end of 2013.

China had 4,091 banks with total assets of 172.3 trillion yuan by the end of last year, and commercial banks' capital adequacy ratio grew to 13.18 percent, according to the annual report released by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

The banking regulator will strengthen risk management and channel more capital to boost the real economy this year, the report added.