The non-performing loan ratio of China's rural credit cooperatives has dropped to 9.2 percent by end September, down 27.7 percentage points from the end 2002, a central bank official has said.

Capital adequacy ratio of the cooperatives has risen to 10.9 percent from -8.5% during this period, Yi Gang, assistant governor of the People's Bank of China, said at a forum in Beijing.

By end September, their outstanding deposits stood at 4.4 trillion yuan (US$593.9 billion) and outstanding loans at 3.2 trillion yuan, 12.3 percent of all the financial loans in China, said Yi.

Among the loans, 1.49 trillion yuan have been extended to support agricultural development and 1.22 trillion yuan to 77.42 million rural households, 33 percent of the nation's total.