Chinas new local-currency loans exceeded estimates last month while money supply expanded at a faster pace, a sign policy makers are maintaining credit support for the economy after first-quarter growth unexpectedly slowed.
Lending was 792.9 billion yuan ($129 billion) in April, the Peoples Bank of China said yesterday in Beijing, compared with the median estimate of 755 billion yuan in a Bloomberg News survey. M2 money supply rose 16.1 percent from a year earlier, following Marchs 15.7 percent advance.
Inflation thats run below the governments annual goal every month this year has allowed the central bank to keep credit flowing as a recovery in the worlds second-biggest economy threatens to falter. At the same time, the lending growth and expansion of so-called shadow banking may increase risks in the financial system that new leaders including President Xi Jinping are trying to control.