BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's banking sector reported growing domestic assets and debt in 2017, official data showed Thursday.

Domestic assets of financial institutions in the banking sector stood at 245.78 trillion yuan (38.99 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of December, up 8.6 percent year on year, data from the China Banking Regulatory Commission showed.

Their domestic debt totalled 226.37 trillion yuan, rising 8.3 percent year on year.

The growth pace of both assets and debt decelerated from that of 2016.

China will continue to strengthen financial supervision in the banking sector in 2018, preventing risks such as high corporate debt and household leverage, the banking regulator said last week.