2004/05/13
Thelatest PBC statistics showed that the performance of financial industryremained healthy and stable in April, as reflected in that money supply andloans witnessed large increase, medium and long-term loans and foreign currencyloans grew rapidly, deposits of financial institutions increased slightly andhousehold savings deposits went down, interest rates in money market went upand RMB exchange rate remained stable.
1.
Moneysupply expanded relatively fast
In April, broadmoney (M2) surged by 19.1 percent YOY to RMB23.36 trillion yuan, with anincrease equal to that of March. Narrow money (M1) reached RMB8.56 trillionyuan, increasing by 20 percent, which was 0.1 percentage points lower compared toMarch. Excluding the seasonal factor, the annualized month-on-month growth ofM2 was 20.8 percent. Cash in circulation (M0) stood at RMB1.99 trillion yuan atend-April. Net cash injection in April alone amounted to RMB58.1 billion yuan,RMB24.6 billion yuan more than the same period of 2003.
2.
Depositsincreased slightly, household savings deposits went down
Outstandingdeposits denominated in both local and foreign currencies in all financialinstitutions reached RMB23.46 trillion yuan at end-April, increasing by 19.1percent from a year earlier, which was 2.3 percentage points lower comparedwith a year earlier. In particular, household deposits reached RMB11.9 trillionyuan, increasing by 15.9 percent, 2.5 percentage points lower than 2003; corporatedeposits stood at RMB8.02 trillion yuan, increasing by 21.7 percent, 1.1percentage points higher than the growth recorded for 2003. RMB depositsreached RMB 22.24 trillion yuan, increasing by 20.4 percent YOY, with theannualized MOM growth equal to 16.2 percent excluding seasonal factor. Inparticular, RMB household deposits was RMB11.22 trillion yuan, increasing by17.8 percent, 1.6 percentage points lower than 2003. Increase of householddeposits in April alone was RMB30.3 billion yuan, decelerating by RMB32.3billion yuan from a year earlier. The key reason for the decrease of householddeposits was the rapid development of treasury bonds and fund products.Outstanding foreign currency deposits decreased by 0.8 percent year-on-year toUSD147.4 billion in April.
3.
Growthof bank loans remained stable at a high level
Outstandingloans denominated in both local and foreign currencies in all financialinstitutions (including foreign-funded ones) increased by 20.4 percent to RMB18.12trillion yuan in April. Outstanding RMB loans reached RMB16.94 trillion yuan,increasing by 19.9 percent, which was 0.2 percentage points lower than thegrowth recorded for March or 0.8 percentage points lower than that for 2003,with annualized month-on-month growth equal to 18.5 percent. In terms of loansstructure, increase of loans rose by RMB5.1 billion yuan to RMB199.5 billionyuan, which included RMB71 billion yuan of short-term loans and paperfinancing, RMB2.2 billion yuan of medium-term working capital loans, RMB122.3billion yuan of medium and long-term loans and RMB4 billion yuan of other loans.Increase of medium and long-term loans went up by RMB40.2 billion yuan onyear-on-year basis and that of short-term loans and paper financing down byRMB31.4 billion yuan. Outstanding foreign currency loans increased year-on-yearby 28.5 percent to USD142.2 billion, with cumulative increase of the first fourmonths accelerating by USD3.5 billion to USD11.5 billion.
4.
Inter-bankmarket transactions slowed down
Because the PBCraised the reserve requirement ratio, introduced differentiated requiredreserve ratio arrangement, and influenced by the Labor Day holiday, interestrates recovered significantly in April. Turnover of RMB transactions in theinter-bank market amounted to RMB1.07 trillion yuan, decreasing by RMB176.9billion yuan or 14.2 percent compared with last month, and decreasing byRMB319.8 billion yuan or 23 percent from a year earlier. Monthly-weightedaverage interest rates in inter-bank borrowing market and repurchase marketwent up by 20 base points compared with March to 2.27 percent and 2.13 percentrespectively. Monthly-weighted average interest rates with maturity of 7 daysin inter-bank borrowing market and repurchase market stood at 2.68 and 2.44percent respectively at the peak, increasing by 72 and 61 base pointsrespectively compared with the bottom of April.
RMB exchange rate remained stable, beingat 8.2769 yuan per US dollar at the end of April.