Chinese banks' new loans falls sharply to $131.8b in February

This is only a third of the $480.75b in loans issued in January.

Chinese banks tempered the pace of lending after issuing $131.8b (CNY885.8b) in new new yuan loans in February following record-high lending the previous month, data from the central bank show.

Also read: Chinese banks loan growth to hit 13.8% in 2019

This represents a third of the record-high loans ($480.75b) in January as authorities may have moved to regulate the rapid pace of lending to manage the amount of credit into the economy. In January, short-term loans surged 57.8% YoY even as new mid- and long-term loans only inched up 5.3% over the same period, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence show, suggesting that borrowers are looking for quick liquidity rather than longer-term investments that chart sustainable growth.

Total social financing (TSF) which includes off-balance sheet financing, dropped to $104.56b (CNY703b) from $690.15b (CNY4.64t) in January. Growth of outstanding total social financing (TSF) also slowed to 10.1% in February from January’s 10.4%.

The growth of broad M2 money supply slowed to 8% in February from 8.4% in the previous month.