China's financing growth eases but stays resilient in Q1

China's financing activity maintained a solid pace in the first quarter of 2026 despite a moderate deceleration, continuing to provide steady support for the real economy, official data showed on Monday.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said that the country's outstanding aggregate social financing — the total amount of financing to the real economy — stood at 456.46 trillion yuan ($66.93 trillion) by the end of March, marking a 7.9 percent year-on-year increase, compared with 8.2 percent for the January-February period.

The country's increment of aggregate social financing reached 14.83 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2026, a decrease of 354.5 billion yuan compared to the same period last year, the central bank said.

The broad money supply, or M2, reached 353.86 trillion yuan at the end of March, rising 8.5 percent year-on-year, a deceleration from 9 percent as of the end of February, but up from 7 percent for the same period of last year, the central bank added.

Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank, said that while the growth rates of social financing and M2 slowed down from their peaks in the first quarter, the figures were still significantly higher than the nominal GDP growth rate for the same period, pointing to a still accommodative financing condition.

"If there emerge clear signs of weakening external demand, the intensity of counter-cyclical adjustments will be increased accordingly and further strengthen the support of monetary and financial policies for the real economy," Wen said.

The country's new renminbi-denominated loans came in at 8.6 trillion yuan in the first quarter, while RMB deposits increased by 13.73 trillion yuan, the central bank said.