BEIJING — Total deposits of China's housing provident fund reached 2.37 trillion yuan (about $334.4 billion) in 2019, official data showed.

A total of 56.49 million people withdrew their provident fund last year, an amount of 1.63 trillion yuan, according to a report released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China.

Among those who contributed to the fund, the proportion of employees in the nonpublic sector, including private businesses and foreign-invested enterprises, accounted for 49.04 percent, an increase of 1.93 percentage points over the previous year, said the report.

The housing provident fund is a long-term housing savings plan made up of compulsory monthly deposits by both employers and employees. It can only be used by employees for house-related expenses.

In the meantime, 2.86 million individual housing loans were issued in 2019, totaling 1.21 trillion yuan, the report said.

The housing provident fund mainly supports employees' basic housing demand and reduces the interest burden of housing loans for employees.