China bank lending slows in May to rein in inflation
Loan-l – Chinese banks issued 639.4 billion yuan (US$94 billion) in new loans in May, down from April, the central bank said Friday as the government tries to curb lending to rein in inflation.
Bank lending in April had reached 774 billion yuan, but the government has rolled out a series of measures to restrain the supply of credit for fear of an asset bubble in the booming economy.
M2, the broadest measure of money supply which includes cash and money in savings accounts, rose 21 percent at the end of May from a year earlier, little changed from the 21.48 percent increase at the end of April.
China has powered out of the global financial crisis on the back of a four-trillion-yuan (US$586 billion) stimulus package and state-sanctioned bank lending that saw loans nearly double to 9.6 trillion yuan in 2009.
But worried about a potential rise in bad loans and inflation, the government has clamped down on lending and has set a loan target of 7.5 trillion yuan for this year.
source : http://www.chinapost.com.tw
