China's new yuan loans rise in February

BEIJING - China's new yuan-denominated loans totaled 1.36 trillion yuan ($208.89 billion) in February, up 452.9 billion yuan year-on-year, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 10.1 percent year-on-year to 223.6 trillion yuan at the end of February, according to the People's Bank of China.

The M2 growth rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than that at the end of January, and up 1.3 percentage points from the same period last year.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, came in at 59.35 trillion yuan at the end of February, up 7.4 percent from a year earlier.

M0, the amount of cash in circulation, rose by 4.2 percent year-on-year to 9.19 trillion yuan by the end of last month.

The central bank injected 229.9 billion yuan of net cash into the market in February, the central bank data showed.

Newly added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms receive from the financial system, came in at 1.71 trillion yuan in February, up 839.2 billion yuan from the same period last year.

Wednesday's data also showed China's new yuan deposits in February reached 1.15 trillion yuan, up 129.4 billion yuan from a year earlier.

By the end of last month, total outstanding yuan deposits stood at 217.29 trillion yuan, rising 10.4 percent year-on-year.

In February, RMB settlements for cross-border trade amounted to 466.7 billion yuan.