China has not decided the commercial banks' annual lending limit for 2011 yet, Liu Mingkang, chairman of the country's top banking regulator said in Davos on Jan 26, China Securities Journal reported Thursday.

Responding to reports that newly-added bank loans has hit 1.2 trillion yuan ($182.3 billion) as of Jan 24, Liu, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, confirmed new bank loans in January were usually high.

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Analysts said that if the lending hike does not show signs of slowing down in January, the regulator may implement measures to restrain it, including issuing directed central bank bills, the report said.

The report added that the new loan amount in January hit the maximum level the regulators can tolerate.

Banks usually issue about 50 percent of the annual loans in the first quarter, the report cited an analyst as saying. Regulators have set a yearly proportion trying to balance the lending process, the analyst said.

To restrain soaring loan amounts, the central bank has increased the deposit-reserve ratio this year. But the analyst said the effect was not obvious, and caused tight financial conditions in the money market.