Commercial banks in China may have lent a lower-than-expected 800 billion yuan (US$127 billion) worth of new loans in January, after the central bank ordered them to control the size of lending, a newspaper said.

The China Securities Journal reached the conclusion based on information that the four major Chinese state-owned banks - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank , Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China - have extended 320 billion yuan in new loans last month.

The estimated loans were significantly lower than the new yuan lending of 1.04 trillion yuan in January 2011 and 1.39 trillion yuan in January 2010.

The smaller size of lending was mainly due to a seven-day holiday break for the Lunar New Year, which fell in February in the past two years, the paper said, quoting an unidentified loan manager in a state bank.

But the lending size may still fall below market expectations as the central bank has ordered banks to limit their new loans during several days in January, the paper said. An outflow of deposits and the regulator's close inspection on the loan-to-deposit ratio have also curbed banks from extending new loans, it said.

Tan Song, an analyst at Dongxing Securities, expected growth in money supply to slow in January or February.