Yuan loans down, recovery still on track
Fresh lending dips from the same time last year but is up on October, keeping the banks on track to reach the country's annual goal
The amount of yuan-denominated new loans from mainland lenders was lower than expected in November, but analysts said the central bank's accommodative monetary policy remained unchanged and would keep the country's economy on track for recovery.
Fresh loans last month came to 522.9 billion yuan (HK$644.1 billion), down 7.1 per cent, or 40 billion yuan, from a year earlier.
But the figure was 3.5 per cent more than October's 505.2 billion yuan, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said yesterday. Total bank lending was lower than the 550 billion yuan median estimate of 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
New lending reached 7.75 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of this year, an increase of 13.5 per cent, or 919 billion yuan, from the year-earlier period. Outstanding yuan deposits at the end of November totalled 90.16 trillion yuan, up 13.4 per cent from a year earlier.
Monetary policy remained positive and the new lending for this year was on course to meet government targets of 8 trillion yuan, ANZ senior economist Raymond Yeung said. "New lending has become less important in the social financing, with other financing tools, such as corporate bonds, to bolster economic growth," Yeung said.