April 15, 2016

New yuan loans totaled CNY 1.37 trillion (USD 211 billion) in March, which came in well above the CNY 727 billion registered in the previous month. March’s print overshot the CNY 1.1 trillion the markets had expected. In the 12 months up to March, new yuan loans totaled CNY 12.7 trillion (February: CNY 12.5 trillion).



Total social financing—a broader measure of liquidity in the economy that includes loans, bonds and other non-traditional instruments—jumped from CNY 780 billion in February to 2.34 trillion in March.



Meanwhile, annual growth in M2—the broadest measure of money supply in China—ticked up from 13.3% in February to 13.4% in March, missing market expectations of 13.5%.



The rebound observed in credit growth and money supply suggest that the People’s Bank of China continues to support economic growth and that it has helped to stabilize China’s economy.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast participants expect M2 to expand 12.2% in 2016, which is up 0.1 percentage points over the previous month’s forecast. In 2017, the panel sees M2 growth of 11.6%.