China's financing activity steady despite July loan decline

China's overall financing activity remained broadly stable in July, though a contraction in renminbi lending pointed to lingering weakness in credit demand, according to data released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.

Outstanding aggregate social financing, a broad measure of funds provided to the real economy, stood at 463.27 trillion yuan ($68.7 trillion) at the end of July, up 7.4 percent year-on-year, unchanged from the growth rate recorded at the end of June.

Broad money supply, or M2, increased 7.7 percent year-on-year to 355.51 trillion yuan at the end of July, compared with 8 percent growth at the end of June. Narrow money supply, or M1, rose 4 percent year-on-year to 115.46 trillion yuan, a growth rate unchanged from the previous month.

However, renminbi-denominated loans increased by 10.38 trillion yuan in the first seven months, compared with an increase of 10.72 trillion yuan in the first half, indicating that renminbi loans posted a net decline of about 340 billion yuan in July.

New aggregate social financing totaled 22.25 trillion yuan in the first seven months of the year, 1.74 trillion yuan less than the same period a year earlier, the central bank said.