PRESS DIGEST - China - July 16

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, July 16 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Thursday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- The amount of of new lending in China could have already exceeded an appropriate level for economic demand and reinforced inflation expectations, analysts said, but China's central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates and reserve requirements for the remainder of the year.

-- China should prevent a wave of bubbles in property prices as developers can easily obtain bank loans for their projects due to excessive new lending in the first half, the newspaper said in a commentary.

-- Yanzhou Coal (600188.SS)(1171.HK) is faced with rising production costs at its 600,000-tonne methanol plant in Shaanxi Province as the company has had to buy coal from other places with an affiliated coal mine for the project not yet starting production.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- An official at China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said the country would try to stablise market confidence, price expectations and investment in the property sector.

-- The state-owned parent of Shanghai Construction Ltd Co (600170.SS) plans to inject assets worth a total of 17 billion yuan ($2.49 billion) into the listed unit.

FINANCIAL NEWS