BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Loans to China's real estate sector expanded at a slower pace in 2017, central bank data showed Friday.

By the end of 2017, outstanding loans to the property sector stood at 32.2 trillion yuan (about 5 trillion U.S. dollars), up 20.9 percent year on year, according to a report from the People's Bank of China.

The growth was 6.1 percentage points slower than the expansion seen by the end 2016.