Deputy Governor of China's central bank, Yi Gang, says the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States has had a limited direct influence on China. But he urges the country's finance sector to learn from the crisis.

''The crisis reminds us that China should continue stable and healthy macroeconomic policies. Based on this issue, we can also understand more about financial innovation and the responsibilities of economic authorities.''

Subprime mortgages mainly target homeowners with low incomes or poor credit ratings.

When U.S. interest rates grew and the housing market weakened, there's a high possibility that people were unable to pay off their loans.

That's the case at the beginning of last year in the U.S. Some financial institutions, such as investment bank Bear Sterns, thus ran into problems.

The crisis rapidly spread to major financial markets in Asia and Europe.

But Yi Gang says the housing loan market in China has so far been stable.

''The general credit is healthy, especially measured by risk sharing. The average individual housing mortgage in China is not as high as the global average, and the overall situation is sound.''
A recent report from Shanghai banking regulators shows that housing-related loans accounted for about half of all loans in Chinese commercial banks by the end of last year.