Loans rebound on policy easing by PBOC

China’s new yuan-denominated loans stood at 1.38 trillion yuan (US$200 billion) in September, up from 1.28 trillion yuan in August, the central bank data said Wednesday.

The amount was 111.9 billion yuan more than in August 2017, according to data from the People’s Bank of China.

Total new bank loans in the first nine months of the year jumped 17.7 percent from a year earlier to 13.14 trillion yuan, and were on track to make a record year, eclipsing last year’s 13.53 trillion yuan.

For the January-September period, new medium- and long-term loans to households, mainly used for home purchases, amounted to 3.83 trillion yuan. And, new loans to non-financial enterprises, government departments and organizations, which mainly represent lending to the real economy, hit 7.11 trillion yuan.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 8.3 percent year on year to 180.17 trillion yuan at the end of September. The pace of growth accelerated from a rise of 8.2 percent registered in August.

The narrow measure of money supply, or M1, which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 4 percent year on year to 53.86 trillion yuan at the end of September.

Newly-added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms get from the financial system, was 15.37 trillion yuan for the first three quarters, down 2.32 trillion yuan year on year. In September alone, newly-added social financing reached 2.21 trillion yuan, up from 276.8 billion yuan in August.

Central bank Governor Yi Gang said on Sunday he still sees plenty of room for adjustment in interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio, as downside risks from trade tensions with the United States remain.

The steadying loan growth offered an early sign that recent policy easing may be having an effect, but regulatory tightening continued to weigh on shadow financing, said Chang Liu, China Economist for Capital Economics in London.