New loan expansion remains flat despite deleveraging, says PBOC

China’s broad money supply maintained a low growth rate of 8.3 percent in April, along with flat new loan expansion even as policymakers continued financial deleveraging, according to data from the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, on Friday.

Last month’s M2, or the broad measure of money supply covering cash in circulation and all deposits, missed market expectations of 8.5 percent and was only 0.1 percentage points higher than March’s reading, but 1.5 percentage points lower from a year earlier. The yuan-denominated new loans increased by 1.18 trillion yuan ($) in April, 79.7 billion yuan more from a month earlier, resulting in total outstandings of 126.16 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 12.7 percent. It was slightly slower than the growth rate of 12.8 percent in March, the PBOC said.

The total social financing, which includes off-balance-sheet financing in addition to regular bank lending, increased by 1.56 trillion yuan, compared with the incremental amount of 1.33 trillion yuan in March and 1.17 trillion yuan in February, said the PBOC. It was in line with the monetary authority’s aim to control total money supply during the deleveraging process, but the weaker credit growth and a too-tight financial environment may curb overall economic growth in a lagging period, said economists.

Possible economic weakening, due to negative impacts of financial tightening, could hurt economic growth, which requires policymakers to remain vigilant and make monetary policy more flexible, said Wang Yongli, academic committee member of International Monetary Institute in Renmin University of China.