China's banks and other financial institutions issued a smaller amount of credit in the first three months of the year when compared with a year earlier, official data showed Friday, suggesting continued tepid borrowing demand.
Total social financing, a broader metric of credit that also includes nonbank financing, stood at 12.93 trillion yuan ($1.787 trillion) in the January-March period, down by CNY1.61 trillion from the same period last year, said the People's Bank of China.
New yuan loans issued by banks in China were CNY9.46 trillion in the first three months, said the central bank, which broke its norm of providing monthly data for the above two credit metrics earlier this year.
Calculations by The Wall Street Journal based on official data showed that China's TSF stood at CNY4.87 trillion in March while new yuan loans were at CNY3.09 trillion, which missed the CNY3.5 trillion expectations made in an economist survey by Journal earlier.
China's M2, the broadest measurement of money supply, rose 8.3% on year in March, down from the 8.7% seen in February and expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-12-24 0730ET
