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China’s total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, grew by a net 1.4 trillion yuan ($202 billion) in May, slightly higher than a net increase of 1.36 trillion yuan the month before, central bank data showed Wednesday.
TSF includes financing that exists outside the conventional bank lending system like initial public offerings and bond sales.
In May, banks made 1.18 trillion yuan in net new yuan loans, up from 1.02 trillion yuan in the previous month, according to the data. Of the 1.18 trillion yuan, 56.1%, or 662.5 billion yuan, went to the household sector, up from April’s 51.5%.
China’s outstanding M2, a broader measure of the money supply that covers all cash in circulation plus deposits, grew 8.5% year-on-year at the end of May, unchanged from a month earlier, the data show.
“Credit growth remained broadly stable in May,” Franziska Palmas, an economist at research firm Capital Economics, said in a note. “Policy easing has not yet been effective in generating a sustained pick-up in credit growth and is one of the reasons why we don’t expect a strong recovery in economic growth in the coming months.”