China's financial activity gathers momentum as M1 growth picks up

China's financing activity showed solid momentum at the start of 2026, with a steady expansion in financial aggregates and rising spending appetites among market players, official data showed on Friday.

The country's aggregate social financing — the total amount of financing to the real economy — reached 9.6 trillion yuan ($1.39 trillion) in the first two months of 2026, an increase of 316.2 billion yuan compared to the same period last year, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said.

Notably, the country's M1 money supply — which represents how much money is actively being used in the economy — grew by 5.9 percent year-on-year as of the end of February, up from 4.9 percent as of the end of January and 3.8 percent as of the end of 2025, which experts said pointed to market players' rising spending appetites.

The broad money supply, or M2, reached 349.22 trillion yuan at the end of February, rising 9 percent year-on-year, the same as January, the central bank said.

The central bank added that outstanding aggregate social financing stood at 451.4 trillion yuan by the end of February, marking an 8.2 percent year-on-year increase, the same pace as January and compared to 8.3 percent for the whole of 2025.

The country's new renminbi-denominated loans came in at 5.61 trillion yuan in the first two months, while RMB deposits increased by 9.26 trillion yuan.