China's ICBC says new Jan loans down vs last year

BEIJING Feb 1 (Reuters) - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398.HK) (601398.SS), the country's largest lender, said that its new loans in January were about 110 billion yuan ($16 billion), less than in the same month last year.

The bank also said in a statement that the majority of the loans went to on-going projects and small businesses, and it vowed to lend at a balanced, reasonable pace throughout the year. ($1=6.827 Yuan) (Reporting by Langi Chiang and Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Chrid Buckley)