China's new yuan loans rise in August

BEIJING -- China's new yuan-denominated loans totaled 1.22 trillion yuan ($189 billion) last month, down 63.1 billion yuan from the same period last year, central bank data showed Friday.

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.2 percent year-on-year to 231.23 trillion yuan at the end of August, according to the People's Bank of China.

The growth rate was 0.1 percentage points lower than the figure seen at the end of July, and was 2.2 percentage points lower than that during the same period last year.

The M1, which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, stood at 62.67 trillion yuan at the end of August. It was up by 4.2 percent year-on-year.

The M0, the amount of cash in circulation, went up by 6.3 percent from a year ago to 8.51 trillion yuan at the end of last month.

The central bank injected a total of 34.2 billion yuan of net cash into the market in August.

Newly added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms receive from the financial system, came in at 2.96 trillion yuan in August, down 629.5 billion yuan from the same period last year.

Friday's data also showed China's new yuan deposits in August reached 1.37 trillion yuan, down 567.2 billion yuan from a year earlier.

By the end of last month, total outstanding yuan deposits stood at 226.85 trillion yuan, up 8.3 percent year-on-year.

In August, RMB settlements for cross-border trade amounted to 666.9 billion yuan.

China's central bank has pledged to make its prudent monetary policy more targeted and flexible to better adapt to the needs of high-quality development and put more focus on the efficiency of financial services to support the real economy.