Financing activity slows as household long-term loans contract

China's financing activity slowed in August, with medium- to long-term household loans registering a net decline, adding to the case for stepping up efforts to stabilize the property market and bolster expectations for household income growth, central bank data showed.

The People's Bank of China said on Monday that the country's renminbi-denominated loans increased by 10.44 trillion yuan ($1.56 trillion) in the first eight months of the year, compared to 10.38 trillion yuan in the first seven months. This implies that RMB lending increased by only 60 billion yuan in August, following a net decline of about 340 billion yuan in July.

Particularly, medium- to long-term household loans — mainly mortgages — increased by 18.8 billion yuan in the first eight months, down from an increase of 101 billion yuan in the first seven months, the PBOC said. This indicates a net decline of 82.2 billion yuan in August.

The January-August increase also fell sharply from 1.08 trillion yuan in the same period last year, pointing to weakening willingness among residents to take on loans to purchase properties.

Meanwhile, the central bank said that outstanding aggregate social financing, a broad measure of funds provided to the real economy, stood at 464.8 trillion yuan at the end of August, up 7.2 percent year-on-year. The growth slowed from 7.4 percent at the end of July.

New aggregate social financing totaled 23.91 trillion yuan in the first eight months, 2.64 trillion yuan less than in the same period last year, the PBOC said.

Broad money supply, or M2, increased 7.5 percent year-on-year to 356.81 trillion yuan at the end of August, easing from 7.7 percent a month earlier. Narrow money supply, or M1, rose 4.1 percent to 115.77 trillion yuan, edging up from 4 percent at the end of July, the central bank added.