China’s new loans rose less than expected in May, as heightened trade tensions between Beijing and Washington continued to weigh on borrowing appetite amid a drawn-out property slump.
New yuan loans issued by banks in China came in at 620 billion yuan last month, equivalent to $86.43 billion, sharply higher than the prior month’s tepid reading of 280 billion yuan, according to The Wall Street Journal’s calculations based on data published Friday by the People’s Bank of China.
The significant rise last month is largely because of seasonality, as April is traditionally a weak period for borrowing demand while lenders start to rush to meet their lending targets in May. Still, May’s reading missed the 850 billion yuan expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal by a large margin.
Total social financing, a broader metric that also includes non-bank financing, stood at 2.29 trillion yuan last month, compared with April’s 1.16 trillion yuan. The increase is largely supported by robust government borrowing as private demand falters.
Meanwhile, M2, the broadest measure of money supply, rose 7.9% from a year earlier in May, compared with the prior month’s 8% and market expectations for an 8.1% expansion.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 13, 2025 05:33 ET (09:33 GMT)
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