Mini-stimulus moves lift yuan loans

New local-currency loans rose for the third consecutive month in September to 857.2 billion yuan ($140 billion), up 70.2 billion yuan from a year earlier, and analysts said the increase shows that the economy has stabilized with the help of mini-stimulus measures.

M2, the broadest measure of money supply, expanded 12.9 percent year-on-year, the People's Bank of China said on Thursday. Foreign reserves were $3.89 trillion as of Sept 30.

Sheng Songcheng, head of the statistics and analysis department of the PBOC, said that M2 money supply will keep increasing steadily and its growth will stabilize at a target range of about 13 percent.