BEIJING - The risk of rising bad loans was the major concern for Chinese bankers last year, according to a survey by the China Banking Association and PwC, the accounting and auditing firm.

About 60.8 percent of the 2,380 bankers surveyed regarded risk management from bad loan pressure as the biggest challenge in 2018, said the survey report.

The property sector ranked the first among sectors in expected rising non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in 2018, followed by the metallurgic industry and textile industry.

The respondents agreed that improving risk management and focusing on changes in asset quality are key tasks in the future.

The survey showed that the biggest borrower in 2018 was urban infrastructure projects, followed by the medical sector.

Last year, Chinese authorities continued to take a tougher stance on financial risks.

By the end of December 2018, the NPL ratio of commercial banks stood at 1.83 percent, 0.04 percentage points lower than that in Q3.

Outstanding bad loans of commercial banks in Q4 dropped 6.8 billion yuan ($1 billion) from Q3 to 2.03 trillion yuan.