Fresh lending tops 500b yuan in September

Fresh lending by banks in September breached the 500-billion-yuan mark, beating economists' estimates, and just over a 100 billion yuan more than what the lenders funneled out in August, according to China's central bank.

Banks loaned 516.7 billion yuan in September, up from 410.4 billion yuan in August, ahead of the estimated range of between 300 billion and 400 billion yuan for last month.

Money supply also expanded faster than forecast. Annual growth in M2, the broadest measure of money supply, accelerated to 29.3 percent in September from a year earlier, up from 28.5 percent in August, the People's Bank of China revealed on its website.