China's new yuan-denominated loans hit 3.34 trillion yuan (476.97 billion U.S. dollars) in January, a year-on-year rise of 110.9 billion yuan, central bank data showed on Thursday.
The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 8.4 percent year on year to 202.31 trillion yuan at the end of January.
The M2 growth was 0.3 percentage points lower than that at the end of December and kept unchanged with the level of the same period last year.
As the first quarter is critical to epidemic prevention and control, issuing more loans will help cushion the impact of the virus on enterprises, Wen Bin, chief researcher with China Minsheng Bank, said in a research note.
The narrow measure of the money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, stood at 54.55 trillion yuan by the end of January, remaining unchanged with the level of the same time last year.
The M1 growth was 4.4 percentage points lower than that at the end of December. It was also 0.4 percentage points lower than the same period last year.
M0, the amount of cash in circulation, rose 6.6 percent year on year to 9.32 trillion yuan by the end of January.
The central bank injected 1.61 trillion yuan of net cash into the market in January.
Newly added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms receive from the financial system, stood at 5.07 trillion yuan in January, up 388.3 billion yuan from the same period last year.
As both the new yuan-denominated loans and newly added social financing beat market expectations and the M2 remained at a strong level, the real economy is being well supported, said Wen.
Beating market expectations, the rise came amid growing derivative deposits, as well as the expected increase in the base money supply due to the strengthening yuan, Wen said.
Starting December 2019, treasury bonds and local government general bonds were included in total social financing statistics, the People's Bank of China said on its website.
By the end of January, total outstanding social financing rose 10.7 percent year on year to 256.36 trillion yuan. Of the total, outstanding RMB loans to the real economy were 155.06 trillion yuan, up 12.2 percent year on year.
Judging from the structure, the real economy has been receiving more loans. Outstanding RMB loans to the real economy accounted for 60.5 percent of outstanding social financing by the end of January, 0.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year.
With the new short-term loans and the new medium- and long-term loans both exceeding the increase of the previous month and the same period last year, the financial sector is strengthening its support to the real economy thanks to the counter-cycle adjustment measures, said Wen.
New RMB deposits in China rose 2.88 trillion yuan in January, 393.5 billion yuan less than a year earlier.
By the end of January, total outstanding new RMB deposits stood at 195.81 trillion yuan, up 8.3 percent year on year. The growth was 0.4 percentage points lower than the previous month and 0.7 percentage points higher year on year.
In January, RMB settlement for cross-border trade amounted to 452.5 billion yuan and RMB settlement for direct investment stood at 231.8 billion yuan.
