China's overall financing activity remained broadly stable in October, though a contraction in renminbi lending pointed to lingering weakness in credit demand, particularly in the household sector, central bank data showed.
The People's Bank of China said on Friday that China's outstanding aggregate social financing, a broad measure of funds provided to the real economy, stood at 469.16 trillion yuan ($70.32 trillion) at the end of October, up 7.2 percent year-on-year. The growth was up from 7.1 percent at the end of September, indicating steady financing activity of the real economy.
However, the country's renminbi-denominated loans increased by 11.42 trillion yuan in the first 10 months of the year, down from 11.52 trillion yuan in the first nine months, indicating that RMB loans posted a net decline of about 100 billion yuan in October.
Particularly, medium- to long-term household RMB loans — mainly mortgages — decreased by 50.1 billion yuan in the first 10 months, while short-term household loans shrank by 1.41 trillion yuan, which analysts said indicates that the housing sector is still in a deleveraging process amid property sector weakness.
Broad money supply, or M2, increased 7.1 percent year-on-year to 359.06 trillion yuan at the end of October, easing from 7.2 percent a month earlier. Narrow money supply, or M1, rose 4.4 percent, up from 3.2 percent at the end of September, the central bank said.
New aggregate social financing totaled 28.61 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, 2.29 trillion yuan less than in the same period last year, the PBOC added.
Net financing from corporate bonds reached 3.1 trillion yuan in the first 10 months of the year, jumping by 1.27 trillion yuan year-on-year.
