2010-11-11 11:05

BEIJING -- China's new yuan-denominated lending in October dropped to 587.7 billion yuan ($88.5 billion) from 595.5 billion yuan in September, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said Thursday.

The figure was higher than market estimations of less than 500 billion yuan after the central bank lifted the required reserve ratio for six banks and surprisingly raised benchmark interest rates in October.  

It was a big leap from the 253 billion yuan of new yuan loans in October of last year.

October's amount brought the combined new loans for the first 10 months to about 6.89 trillion yuan, compared with the 8.92 trillion yuan in the same period of last year.

China's banking regulator has taken measures to curb bank lending this year, targeting new yuan loans of 7.5 trillion yuan for the full year, down from last year's 9.6 trillion yuan.

Outstanding yuan-loans totaled 46.87 trillion yuan at the end of October, 19.3 percent higher than a year earlier, the PBOC said. The growth rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than that at the end of September.

China's broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 19.3 percent year-on-year to 69.98 trillion yuan by the end of October, compared with the 19 percent increase at the end of September.

Narrow money supply (M1), cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits, climbed 22.1 percent from a year earlier to 25.33 trillion yuan -- up from the 20.9 percent rise at the end of September.

China's banking regulator has taken measures to curb bank lending this year for fear that ample liquidity would trigger inflation and assets bubble. The government targeted new yuan loans of 7.5 trillion yuan for the full year this year, down from last year's 9.6 trillion yuan.