China's new yuan loans expand in January

BEIJING - China's new yuan-denominated loans stood at 3.23 trillion yuan ($477 billion) in January 2019, up 328.4 billion yuan year-on-year, central bank data showed Friday.

The amount of new loans more than doubled from 1.08 trillion yuan in December, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 8.4 percent year-on-year to 186.59 trillion yuan at the end of January, according to the PBOC.

The M2 growth was 0.3 percentage points up from the level at the end of December.

The narrow measure of the money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 0.4 percent year-on-year to 54.56 trillion yuan by the end of last month.

New yuan loans made to households reached 989.8 billion yuan last month, while those to non-financial enterprises and government institutions totaled 2.58 trillion yuan.

Newly-added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms get from the financial system, stood at 4.64 trillion yuan in January, up 1.56 trillion yuan year-on-year.

China will keep its prudent monetary policy "neither too tight nor too loose" while maintaining market liquidity at a reasonably ample level in 2019, according to the annual Central Economic Work Conference held in December last year.