China's new yuan loans at 9.9 trillion yuan

BEIJING - China's new yuan-denominated lending reached 9.9 trillion yuan ($.56 trillion) in the first nine months of this year, the central bank said Thursday.

The volume was 2.34 trillion yuan more than that for the same period of last year, the People's Bank of China said in a statement.

In September alone, new loans rose 144.3 billion yuan to 1.05 trillion yuan. HSBC analyst Qu Hongbin attributed last month's rise to recovery in home sales and strong infrastructure investment.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 13.1 percent year on year to 135.98 trillion yuan at the end of September. The pace was faster than 12.2 percent at the end of last year.

"Although the data points to loose credit condition, the country still needs to relax fiscal and monetary policies as the economic demand remains weak," Qu said.

The central bank has cut the reserve requirement ratio and interest rates four times this year. In the first half, China's GDP expanded by 7 percent year on year, down from 7.3 percent for 2014. The country will unveil GDP data for the third quarter next Monday.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, expanded 11.4 percent year on year to 36.4 trillion yuan at the end of last month.

China's total social financing, a measure of funds that non-financial firms and households get from the financial system, stood at 11.9 trillion yuan in the first nine months, down 579 billion yuan from a year earlier.

By the end of last month, the stockpile of foreign exchange reserves stood at 3.51 trillion U.S. dollars, compared with 3.84 trillion by the end of 2014.