The People's Bank of China--News

October Saw Modest Growth of RMB Loans

Money supply grew 15.02 percent. At end-October 2008, broad money M₂ registered 45.31 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 15.02 percent and a deceleration of 0.27 percentage points from end-September. Narrow money M₁ posted 15.72 trillion yuan, up 8.85 percent year on year and a deceleration of 0.58 percentage points from end-September. Cash in circulation (M₀) reached 3.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.59 percent year on year. In the first ten months, net cash supply stood at 94.3 billion yuan, about 30.3 billion yuan less than that in the same period of the last year.

Outstanding RMB loans rose 14.58 percent. At end-October, outstanding RMB and foreign currency loans issued by financial institutions registered 31.59 trillion yuan, up 14.40 percent year on year. Outstanding RMB loans posted 29.83 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 14.58 percent, and an acceleration of 0.1 percentage point over the previous month. In October, the incremental amount of RMB loans posted 181.9 billion yuan, 45.7 billion yuan more than that in the same period of 2007. Broken down by sectors, household loans increased by 4 billion yuan, a deceleration of 64.2 billion yuan year on year. Among this total, short-term loans grew 1.9 billion yuan, while medium- and long-term loans up 2.1 billion yuan. Loans to non-financial companies and other sectors surged 177.9 billion yuan, up 110 billion yuan year on year. Among this total, short-term loans grew 17.7 billion yuan, while medium- and long-term loans and note financing up by 83 billion yuan and 60.8 billion yuan respectively. In the first ten months, RMB loans increased 3.66 trillion yuan, 165.9 billion yuan more than the growth in the same period of the previous year. At end-October, outstanding foreign currency loans issued by financial institutions reached US$258.4 billion, up 21.96 percent year on year. New foreign currency loans in October declined US$10.9 billion, about US$ 17 billion more than the growth in the same period of 2007 (foreign currency loans grew US$6.1 billion in October 2007).

RMB deposits grew 21.1 percent on a year-on-year basis. At end-October, outstanding RMB and foreign currency deposits of financial institutions stood at 47.05 trillion yuan, 20.45 percent higher than the same period last year. That includes 45.83 trillion yuan of outstanding RMB deposits, which grew 21.1 percent over the same period last year and 2.31percentage points over the previous month. In October, RMB deposits increased 339 billion yuan, representing an acceleration of 788.7 billion yuan compared with a decrease of 449.7 billion in the same period last year. Broken down by sector, household deposits grew 315.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year acceleration of 821.7 billion yuan over a drop of 506.2 billion yuan in the same period last year. Non-financial corporate deposits recorded a decline of 194.1 billion yuan, decelerating by 1.5 billion yuan on a year-on-year basis. Fiscal deposits increased 206.5 billion yuan, down 700 million yuan over the growth in the same period last year. From January to October, RMB deposits rose 6.9 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.6 trillion yuan. Outstanding foreign currency deposits at end-October grew 9.62% year on year to US$ 177.7 billion dollars, and foreign currency deposits growth in October stood at US$ 3.6 billion dollars, an acceleration of US$ 700 million dollars year on year.

RMB transactions on the inter-bank market were brisk, and the market interest rates remained stable. In October 2008, RMB transactions on the inter-bank market totaled 9.49 trillion yuan, and the daily turnover averaged 474.7 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 34.1%, or 120.8 billion yuan.

In October, the monthly weighted average interest rate for inter-bank lending stood at 2.70%, down 0.19 percentage point from the previous month and 0.33 percentage point from the same period last year. The monthly weighted rate for bond pledged repo averaged 2.68%, down 0.22 percentage point month on month and 1.44 percentage points year on year.