China's August new lending expands to 545.2b yuan

China's new yuan-denominated lending in August rose to 545.2 billion yuan ($80.53 billion) from 532.8 billion in July, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said in a statement Saturday.

The August figure brought new yuan-nominated loans for the first eight months to about 5.70 trillion yuan, compared with 8.15 trillion yuan during the same period last year.

Total outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 45.68 trillion yuan at the end of August, up 18.6 percent year-on-year, according to the statement on the PBOC website.

China's broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 19.2 percent year-on-year to 68.75 trillion yuan by the end of August.

The growth marked an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the end of July but a drop of 9.3 percentage points compared with the same period of last year, according to the statement.

Narrow money supply (M1), cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits, climbed 21.9 percent from a year earlier to 24.43 trillion yuan, down 1.0 percentage point from the end of July and 5.8 percentage points from the end of August last year.