Money issuance hits 13-month high

Money issuance accelerated to a 13-month high in China in the first quarter and banks almost doubled new yuan loans from February to March, as the authorities cemented economic stabilization policies through credit expansion, according to the People's Bank of China on Friday.

The broad money supply, or M2, had risen to 188.94 trillion yuan ($28.16 trillion) as of the end of the first quarter, marking growth of 8.6 percent over a year earlier, the fastest since February 2018, according to the central bank.

Banks' lending in yuan also surged in March, by 1.69 trillion yuan, much more than the increase of 885.8 billion yuan in February, but less than 3.23 trillion yuan in January, according to bank figures.