China's new yuan loans expand in February

BEIJING - China's new yuan-denominated loans stood at 885.8 billion yuan (about $131 billion) in February 2019, up 46.5 billion yuan year on year, central bank data showed Sunday.

In the first two months, the country's new yuan-denominated loans increased by 374.8 billion yuan year on year to hit 4.11 trillion yuan, 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 percent year on year to 186.74 trillion yuan at the end of February, according to the PBOC.

The M2 growth was 0.4 percentage points and 0.8 percentage points down from the levels at the end of January and the same period last year, respectively.

The narrow measure of the money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 2 percent year on year to 52.72 trillion yuan by the end of last month.

M0, the amount of cash in circulation, fell 2.4 percent year on year to 7.95 trillion yuan by the end of February, according to the PBOC.