China's new loans rise in Q1

BEIJING - China's new yuan-denominated lending stood at 2.76 trillion yuan ($441 billion) in the first quarter, up 294.9 billion yuan year-on-year, the People's Bank of China announced on Thursday.

New loans denominated in foreign currencies stood at $70.9 billion, the People's Bank of China said in an online statement.

It said that the country's social financing, a measure of funds raised by entities in the real economy, amounted to 6.16 trillion yuan in the first quarter, up 2.27 trillion yuan from the same period last year.

In March, both new loans and social financing rebounded significantly, the data showed. New yuan-denominated lending reached 1.06 trillion yuan in March, 440 billion yuan more than that of February. Social financing hit 2.54 trillion yuan, 1.48 trillion yuan more than the previous month.

The data pointed to a recovery in corporate financing demand, analysts said. As a leading economic indicator, the rebound in social financing sends a signal that China's economic recovery is on solid footing, they said.

The money supply also rose. By the end of March, the broad measure of money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 15.7 percent year on year to 103.61 trillion yuan, the statement said.

The increase was up 0.5 percentage points from the end of February and 1.9 percentage points higher than the year-on-year growth registered at the end of 2012.

Meanwhile, the narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits, jumped 11.9 percent year on year to 31.12 trillion yuan, while the growth rate was 2.4 percentage points higher than that of the end of February.

Analysts attributed the ballooning money supply to a substantial increase in deposits and an increase in Chinese banks' forex purchases.

Deposits surge, inflationary concerns mount

The central bank data showed that new yuan-denominated deposits in March hit 4.22 trillion yuan, accounting for 69 percent of the first quarter's total.

"This inevitably affected M2," said Zhao Qingming, an economist at China Construction Bank.

Data showed that M2 rose from 13 trillion yuan in 2000 to 97.4 trillion yuan in 2012. The proportion of M2 in the country's GDP also ascended, triggering inflationary concerns.

China's fast economic growth needs the support of a certain size of M2, said Zhang Qizuo, an economist working on the strategic development of the G20 and emerging economies.