China otorgo mas prestamos en yuans a un ritmo mas acelerado que en todo el anio, el money-supply esta aumentando de manera muy rapida para apoyar a la economia, estan cortando las reservas de los bancos y estan ayudando a los pequenios negocios a obtener mayores creditos.
El total de prestamos otorgados fueron de $160.1 billones en Marzo, muchomas del estimado de los economistas. Las reservasn internacionales subieron a la cifra record de $3.31 trillones al 31 de Marzo.
China’s New Yuan Loans Surge as Money Supply Accelerates
By Bloomberg News - Apr 12, 2012 5:41 AM ET
China’s new yuan loans were the most in a year and money-supply growth quickened after Premier Wen Jiabao moved to bolster the economy by cutting banks’ required reserves and helping smaller businesses get financing.
Local-currency-denominated loans were 1.01 trillion yuan ($160.1 billion) in March, the People’s Bank of China said today, exceeding all 28 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. M2, the broadest measure of money supply, grew 13.4 percent from a year earlier. China’s foreign-exchange reserves, the world’s largest, rose to a record $3.31 trillion as of March 31 after dropping for the first time in more than a decade in the fourth quarter.
China’s new yuan loans surged and money-supply growth quickened last month after Premier Wen Jiabao moved to bolster the economy by cutting banks’ required reserves and helping smaller businesses get financing.
China’s new yuan loans surged and money-supply growth quickened last month after Premier Wen Jiabao moved to bolster the economy by cutting banks’ required reserves and helping smaller businesses get financing. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
The report may reassure investors that the nation will avoid a deeper slowdown in economic growth. Government data due tomorrow are set to show gross domestic product probably expanded 8.4 percent in the three months ended March 31, the least in 11 quarters.
“The March lending reflects the policy easing and support that have been in the works since the beginning of this year,” said Wang Tao, chief China economist with UBS AG in Hong Kong, whose forecast for 900 billion yuan in loans was among the top three estimates. “Markets were looking for more policy easing, but prior easing was already working.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of stocks extended gains following the report, rising 0.6 percent as of 6:08 p.m. in Tokyo. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed up 1.8 percent before the data were released at about 4 p.m. local time.
Easing Restrictions
China is easing restrictions on lending capacity at three of the nation’s four biggest banks, officials at the institutions with knowledge of the matter said last month, after new local-currency-denominated credit fell to the lowest level for a January-February period since 2008. The central bank has also cut reserve requirements for more branches of the nation’s third-biggest lender to boost rural credit.
March’s new yuan lending compares with the median estimate of 797.5 billion yuan in the Bloomberg survey and 710.7 billion yuan in February. It was the highest since 1.04 trillion yuan in January 2011. Money supply was forecast to grow 13 percent. Foreign-exchange reserves rose from $3.18 trillion at the end of December and compared with the median economist estimate of $3.20 trillion.
The increase in foreign-currency holdings shows a “reversal of capital flight,” Lu Ting, head of Greater China economics at Bank of America Corp. in Hong Kong, said in a note. The “unexplained inflow” after accounting for items including currency fluctuations and trade is about $30 billion out of the $124 billion quarterly increase, Lu said.
Deposits Rise
New local-currency loans for the first quarter were 2.46 trillion yuan, up 9.7 percent from a year earlier. New yuan deposits were 2.95 trillion yuan in March, up 10 percent from last year.
The “strong” data for loans and money supply “reinforce our view that the economy has bottomed” in the first quarter, said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. The lending figures suggest the pressure to cut interest rates “may have eased somewhat,” Zhang said.
Not all parts of today’s report showed growth. Aggregate financing, a measure of funding that includes bank lending, bond and stock sales, was 3.88 trillion yuan in the first quarter, down 8 percent from the same period last year.
Unexpected Surplus
China on April 10 reported an unexpected trade surplus for March as import growth trailed estimates. Inflation rose a more- than-forecast 3.6 percent in March as gains in food prices quickened, a statistics bureau report showed on April 9.
A report last month showed Chinese industrial companies had their first January-February profit decline since 2009 while the nation’s largest copper producer, Jiangxi Copper Co. (358), and Air China Ltd., the No. 1 airline, announced earnings that trailed analysts’ estimates.
Wen pledged during a visit to Fujian and Guangxi provinces to boost funding for investment projects already under construction, start major state projects and ensure lending to smaller businesses, the official Xinhua news agency and China National Radio reported April 3.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Li Yanping in Beijing at
yli16@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul