BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's bank loan demand is predicted to increase steadily, and the consumer price will continue to rebound in the ，fourth quarter, the central bank said in a report Friday.

    The expected credit surge is due to hefty capital demand for a number of under-construction projects, and reheating of the real estate sector, according to the quarterly macro-economic review issued by the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

    Medium and long-term credit will increase "substantially", and the bill-financing, which facilitates short-term credits, will continue to fall after the central bank tightened rules to ensure the money flow into the real economy other than stock market speculation, said the report.

    Chinese banks extended 8.67 trillion yuan (1.23 trillion U.S. dollars) of loans in the first nine months, 5.19 trillion yuan more than the same period a year ago, to echo the government's 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package in fight against the global economic crisis.

    The central bank also predicted consumer price index (CPI) would start to rise after hitting the bottom at the end of this year.

    "The CPI will remain in the negative territory in the last three months, but with slowing monthly decline," said the report.

    The main gauge of inflation dipped 1.1 percent year on year in the first nine months. But the September data was up 0.4 percent over the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which did not provide the September data on an annual basis.

    The PBOC stressed the "sustainable" credit expansion and the inflation management as the government has heeded the potential inflationary threats brought by the loan gush.

    The central bank also said the economic recovery will continue to stabilize, and the annual growth will be more than eight percent in 2009 after the continuous rise in the fourth quarter.