China new yuan lending rises in May

BEIJING - China's new yuan-denominated loans rose to 793.2 billion yuan ($125.9 billion) in May, 241.6 billion yuan up from the same period last year, the People's Bank of China, or the central bank, said Monday.

The figure was higher than the 681.8 billion yuan in April. New loans stood at 1.01 trillion yuan in March, 710.7 billion yuan in February and 738 billion yuan in January, PBOC data shows.

New loans in foreign currencies in May were worth 30.2 billion yuan, 54 billion yuan less than the same period last year.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 13.2 percent year-on-year to 90 trillion yuan at the end of May.

The growth was faster than the 12.8-percent rate a month earlier, but lower than the 14-percent annual target set by the government for 2012.

Preliminary data shows the country's social financing, a measure of funds raised by entities in the real economy, totaled 1.14 trillion yuan in May, 56.2 billion yuan more than the same period of 2011 and 177.5 billion yuan more than in April, the PBOC said.