Hong Kong's new mortgage loans, which were drawn down in July, dropped 15.9 percent to 25.9 billion HK dollars (3.3 billion U.S. dollars) year on year from a year earlier, the city's Monetary Authority said. New loans approved during last month rose 15.3 percent to 40.8 billion HK dollars. Approvals for secondary market transactions surged 6.5 billion HK dollars, or 30.4 percent, while those for primary market transactions rose slightly by 300 million HK dollars or 6 percent. These approvals were partially offset by a drop of 1.4 billion HK dollars or 15.7 percent in approvals for refinancing transactions in July. The number of new applications rose 17.9 percent last month to 25,877. About 11 percent of the new mortgage loans approved were priced with reference to best-lending rates. The majority of these loans were in the price range of 2 percent to less than 2.25 percent, said the Monetary Authority. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to Interbank Offered Rates increased to 87.4 percent in July from 83. 9 percent in June. The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 2 percent to 693.2 billion HK dollars. The mortgage delinquency ratio fell to a record low of 0.02 percent while the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.05 percent, it said. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.777 HK dollars) 