China’s new yuan loans hit new high in January

BEIJING, Feb. 13 — China’s new yuan-denominated loans hit 2.9
trillion yuan (about 458.2 billion U.S. dollars) for January, 867 billion
yuan more than the same period a year earlier and a record high, central
bank data showed Monday.

The amount was above the market forecast of around 2.1 trillion yuan and
nearly five times the level in December, when new yuan lending stood at
584.4 billion yuan.The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash
in circulation and all deposits, reached 172.1 trillion yuan at the end of
January, up 8.6 percent year on year, compared with an 8.1-percent increase
a month earlier, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement.The
narrower measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation
plus demand deposits, rose 15 percent year on year to 54.3 trillion yuan at
the end of January. The growth rate was 3.2 percentage points higher than a
month earlier.
M0, the amount of cash in circulation, dropped 13.8 percent to 7.5 trillion
yuan.

January also saw a net cash injection of 399.1 billion yuan, according to
the PBOC.Total social finance, a broad measure of funds that non-financial
firms and households get from the financial system, reached 3.1 trillion
yuan last month, 636.7 billion yuan less than a year earlier.New yuan
deposits stood at 3.9 trillion yuan, 2.4 trillion yuan more than the same
period of last year. – XINHUA