Economic Observer Online
Translated by Chen Ximeng
Original Article: [Chinese]

The People's Bank of China has issued their financial statistics report for 2010. 

According to the report, yuan-denominated loans issued by Chinese banks increased by 7.95 trillion yuan in 2010, among which household loans increased by 2.87 trillion yuan and those to non-financial enterprises and other divisions increased by 5.07 trillion yuan.

During December, yuan-denominated loans increased by 480.7 billion yuan, a hike of 100.7 billion yuan over the same period last year. Foreign currency loans increased by 19.5 percent in December, bringing their yearly total to 74 billion US dollars.

A source close to People's Bank of China revealed that during the last two months, the rapid increase of loans exceeded the central bank's forecasts.

In addition, at the end of 2010 the size of China's M2, the broadest measure of money supply, hit 72.58 trillion yuan, a 19.7 percent increase over the same period last year.

At the end of the year, foreign-exchange reserves totaled 2.86 trillion US dollars, a year-upon-year growth of 18.7 percent. 

In the wake of monetary policy stabilization toward the end of 2010, the capital holdings of domestic commercial banks has already begun to tighten.

This article was edited by Rose Scobie and Paul Pennay