China Credit Growth Weakens

(RTTNews) - China's credit growth remained weak at the start of the year, providing more space for monetary policy maneuver, data from the People's Bank of China revaled on Friday.

Aggregate social financing reached CNY 8.06 trillion in the first two months of the year. This was down by CNY 1.1 trillion compared to the previous year.

Outstanding social financing increased only 9 percent from a year ago.

The M2, a measure of broad money supply increased at a steady pace of 8.7 percent in February. At the same time, M2 posted a slower annual increase of 1.2 percent. Further, data showed that local currency denominated loans grew CNY 6.37 trillion in the January to February period. ING economist Lynn Song said the data showed the limited immediate impact of February's cut in the required reserve ratio.

Although the central bank signalled further RRR cuts to come, a lack of high-quality borrowing demand could limit the effectiveness of RRR cuts in stimulating the economy, the economist added.