Hong Kong mortgage loans approved in Sept. down 11.1 pct

Hong Kong's mortgage loans approved in September fell 11.1 percent from August to 22.4 billion HK dollars (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said here on Friday. The mortgage loans to finance primary market transactions decreased 32.1 percent to 2.8 billion HK dollars and those financing secondary market transactions lost 8.2 percent to 16.7 billion HK dollars. Mortgage loans for refinancing remained unchanged at 3 billion HK dollars. The number of mortgage applications in September fell 12.8 percent month-on-month. The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased 1 percent to 842 billion HK dollars at the end of September. Moreover, the mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01 percent and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.01 percent. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.75 HK dollars)