BEIJING, April 13 (Reuters) - New bank lending in China jumped less than expected in March, while broad money and financing growth remained sufficient to support economic expansion, signalling the central bank is in no rush to ease policy.
China's banks extended 2.99 trillion yuan ($438 billion) in new yuan loans in March, surging from 900 billion yuan in February but missing analysts' forecasts, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the People's Bank of China (PBOC).
Analysts
polled by Reuters had expected new yuan loans would stand at 3.4 trillion yuan last month.
The PBOC does not provide monthly breakdowns. Reuters calculated the March figure based on the bank's January-March data released on Monday, compared with the January-February figure.
Outstanding yuan loans grew 5.7% in March from a year earlier, slower than 6.0% in February. Analysts had expected 5.9% growth.
March is typically a seasonally strong month for lending, as activity rebounds after the Chinese New Year lull and banks step up loan issuance to meet quarterly targets.
Despite the increase, the number was lower than 3.64 trillion seen last March and new loans in January-March came at 8.6 trillion yuan, also lagging behind 9.78 trillion yuan from the same period in 2025, suggesting softer underlying credit demand as borrowers' outlook on future income and growth dims.
China's economy likely regained some momentum nL6N40T0NQ in the first quarter on solid exports, but growth is expected to cool over the rest of 2026 as the Middle East crisis threatens to choke corporate profits and sap overseas demand, a Reuters poll showed.
Analysts polled by Reuters see the central bank keeping the benchmark one‑year loan prime rate unchanged through the end of 2026, while cutting banks’ weighted‑average reserve requirement ratio by 20 basis points in the third quarter of the year.
China has so far absorbed the economic shock from the Iran war with limited disruption, cushioned by large oil reserves, a diversified energy mix and tight price controls.
But economists warn that persistently higher oil prices are already lifting input costs and squeezing profits at a time when domestic demand remains weak, and China's exports, a key pillar of growth, could falter if the conflict nL6N40V09S drags on and undermines the global economy, they added.
Broad M2 money supply grew 8.5% from a year earlier in March, PBOC data showed, below analysts' 8.9% forecast in the Reuters poll. In February, M2 grew 9%.
The narrower M1 money supply grew 5.1% in March from a year earlier, compared to 5.9% in February.
Outstanding total social financing (TSF) - a broad measure of credit and liquidity - rose 7.9% in March from a year earlier, slower than 8.2% in February. Any acceleration in government bond issuance could boost such financing.
Growth in both M2 money supply and total social financing is outpacing the government’s 4.5%–5% economic growth target for this year.
($1 = 6.8337 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Shi Bu, Yukun Zhang and Kevin Yao; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, William Maclean)
