Data from the Chinese central bank points to a year-on-year decline in total social financing (TSF) – a broad measure of credit extended by China’s domestic financial system to the private sector, for the first three quarters of 2018.
PBOC data released on 17 October indicates that TSF for the first three quarter of 2018 was 15.37 trillion yuan, for a decline of 2.32 trillion yuan compared to the same period last year.
TSF in September was 2.21 trillion yuan, for a YoY decline of 39.7 billion yuan, but an increase of 276.8 billion yuan compared to the preceding month.
Zhang Wenhong (张文红), vice-head of PBOC’s surveying and statistics department, said that TSF in 2018 had been characterised in structural terms by the “two many and the one few” as Beijing continues its shadow banking crackdown.
While lending and bond financing have both seen marked YoY gains since the start of the year, off-balance sheet financing has posted a marked decline across the same period.
The first three quarters of 2018 saw renminbi loans to the real economy of 12.8 trillion yuan, for an increase of 1.34 trillion yuan compared to the same year, while corporate bond financing was 1.59 trillion yuan, for YoY increase of 1.41 trillion yuan.
As of the end of September the broad M2 money supply balance was 180.17 trillion yuan ,for a YoY rise of 8.3%, and a deceleration of 0.1 percentage points compared to the preceding month, as well as 0.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
The M1 money supply balance was 53.86 trillion yuan, for YoY growth of 4%, or an acceleration of 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous month, and a deceleration of 10 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
