China's new yuan loans at 1.23t yuan in February

BEIJING -- China's new yuan-denominated loans totaled 1.23 trillion yuan (about $194 billion) in February, central bank data showed Friday.

The figure decreased by 125.8 billion yuan from the same period last year, according to the People's Bank of China.

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 9.2 percent year on year to 244.15 trillion yuan at the end of February, the data showed.

The growth rate was 0.6 percentage points lower than the figure seen at the end of January, and was 0.9 percentage points lower than that during the same period last year.

The M1, which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, stood at 62.16 trillion yuan at the end of February. It was up by 4.7 percent year on year.

The M0, the amount of cash in circulation, went up by 5.8 percent from a year ago to 9.72 trillion yuan at the end of last month.

In February, the central bank withdrew a total of 896.1 billion yuan of net cash from the market.

Newly added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms receive from the financial system, came in at 1.19 trillion yuan last month, representing a drop of 531.5 billion yuan from the same period last year.

Thursday's data also showed China's new yuan deposits in February reached 2.54 trillion yuan, up 1.39 trillion yuan from a year earlier.

By the end of last month, the total outstanding yuan deposits stood at 238.61 trillion yuan, up 9.8 percent year on year.

In February, renminbi settlements for cross-border trade amounted to 538.9 billion yuan.

The central bank has pledged to further improve its regulatory framework of monetary and macro-prudential policies in 2022, as part of efforts to step up counter-cyclical adjustments and curb risk contagion.