China's new yuan loans plunge in July

China's new yuan-denominated lending stood at 385.2 billion yuan (62.6 billion U.S. dollars) in July, down by 314.5 billion yuan from a year earlier, the central bank announced Wednesday.

The figure was much lower than the 1.08 trillion yuan new loans issued in June, according to a statement from the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The PBOC attributed the plunge in new yuan loans partly to flagging demands for loans amid downward pressures for economic growth and a cooling property market.

Social financing, a measure of funds raised by entities through bank credit and other means, stood at 273.1 billion yuan, plunging 1.69 trillion yuan from June and down by 546 billion yuan from a year earlier, the report showed.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 13.5 percent year on year to 119.42 trillion yuan at the end of July. The growth rate slowed by 1.2 percentage points from June.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, expanded 6.7 percent year on year to 33.13 trillion yuan at the end of last month.