China new loans surge to record $458.3bn, blow past forecasts

BEIJING: China’s banks extended a record 2.9 trillion yuan ($458.3 billion) in new yuan loans in January, blowing past expectations and nearly five times the previous month as policymakers aim to sustain solid economic growth while reining in debt risks.

While Chinese banks tend to front-load loans early in the year to get higher-quality customers and win market share, the lofty figure was even higher than the most bullish forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. Net new loans surpassed the previous record of 2.51 trillion yuan in January 2016, which is likely to support growth not only in China but may underpin liquidity globally as major Western central banks begin to withdraw stimulus.

Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans of 2 trillion yuan, up sharply from December’s 584.4 billion yuan.

A more detailed breakdown of the loan data on Monday showed sharp pickups in demand for credit from both households and companies, auguring well for consumption and investment.

“Banks hope to lend early to get early returns... private investment and manufacturing investment are picking up due to firmer global demand (and) household loans could be boosted by property demand,” said Nie Wen, economist at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai.

“This indicates the economy may slow in the first half but any slowdown won’t be sharp...”

Corporate loans surged to 1.78 trillion yuan from 243.2 billion yuan in December, while household loans rose to 901.6 billion yuan in January from 329.4 billion yuan in December, according to Reuters calculations based on the central bank data.

Beijing is in the second year of a regulatory push to clamp down on riskier financial activity that has been fuelled by a rapid build-up in debt.

But authorities are proceeding cautiously and keeping liquidity broadly supportive to avoid any sharp drag on the world’s second-largest economy or excessive financial market volatility.

Broad M2 money supply also beat expectations, growing 8.6 per cent in January from a year earlier, central bank data showed on Monday. Economists had expected the growth rate to edge up to 8.4 per cent from 8.2 per cent in December.

Other data last week had painted a somewhat mixed picture of the economy at the start of the year, with inflationary pressures easing — possibly pointing to softening activity — but better-thanexpected import and export growth.

Taken together, the stronger credit and trade data would appear to still support the consensus view that China will see only a modest pullback in GDP growth to around 6.5 per cent this year, after a forecast-beating 6.9 per cent in 2017.

Outstanding yuan loans grew 13.2 per cent in January from a year earlier, also faster than an expected 12.5 per cent rise and compared with an increase of 12.7 per cent in December.

Last year China’s total new loans hit a record 13.53 trillion yuan, 7 per cent more than the previous record in 2016. The credit boom has been fuelled by strong economic growth, a robust property market and a crackdown on riskier shadow lending, which has forced banks to shift some loans back onto their balance sheets.

Since the start of 2017, Chinese regulators have announced a slew of steps to coax financial institutions to reduce riskier activity and leverage, targeting everything from interbank lending levels to bond trading, negotiable certificates of deposit and entrusted loans.

In addition, the PBOC has been gingerly nudging up money market interest rates, most recently in December, but rates have also been slowly creeping higher on their own as regulators look set to persist with the current “de-risking” campaign much longer than policy crackdowns in the past.

Those efforts appear to be bearing fruit. The outstanding amount of banking wealth management products (WMPs) grew just 1.7 per cent last year, compared with a near 24 per cent rise in 2016. Many of these products had strong links with the lessregulated shadow banking sector.

Analysts expect authorities to step up their efforts this year, focusing on local government debt, rising corporate and household debt levels and dealing with “zombie” companies.

On Monday, the state planner issued new rules for companies which are planning to issue bonds to put more pressure on debt-laden local governments to get their finances in order.