China's new yuan loans fall in August

BEIJING - China's new yuan-denominated loans stood at 1.28 trillion yuan ($186.4 billion) in August, down from 1.45 trillion yuan in July, central bank data showed Wednesday.

Despite the drop, the amount of new yuan loans was still up 183.4 billion yuan from August last year, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website.

New medium- and long-term loans to households, mainly used for home purchases, stood at 441.5 billion yuan. New loans to non-financial enterprises, government agencies, and organizations, which mainly represent lending to the real economy, hit 612.7 billion yuan.

Total outstanding yuan loans at the end of August rose 13.2 percent to 131.88 trillion yuan.

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 8.2 percent year-on-year to 178.87 trillion yuan at the end of August.

The growth was down 0.3 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, from a month earlier and a year earlier.

The narrow measure of the money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 3.9 percent year-on-year to 53.83 trillion yuan.

Newly-added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms get from the financial system, was 1.52 trillion yuan in August, down 37.6 billion yuan year-on-year.