BEIJING - Bank of China, one of the country's top four lenders, expected to grow its loan business at a double digit rate this year, its chairman said Wednesday.

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But the loan growth rate this year will be less than that of last year, which stood between 13 percent and 14 percent, Chairman Xiao Gang said on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary session.

The bank set its target for this year's total yuan loans at about 600 billion yuan (about $91 billion), Xiao said.