Robust social financing offset shrinking bank loans

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SOCIAL financing surged in China in October, offsetting a 13-month low in bank loans, the central bank said today, indicating monetary environment is still favorable for economic recovery.

Total social financing, including loans, bank acceptance bills, corporate bonds and equity financing, topped 1.29 trillion yuan (US$206.4 billion) last month, 503.8 billion more than the same month last year, the People's Bank of China said in a statement today.

Corporate bond issuance rose to 299.2 billion yuan last month, a record high since the central bank began to track the data in 2002.

Meanwhile, banks extended 505.2 billion yuan in Renminbi loans in October, 81.6 billion yuan less than a year earlier, it said.

The amount was also short of the market expectation of 580 billion yuan, according to the Bloomberg.

"It shows that the corporate sector is becoming less dependent on bank lending. It is favorable for deepening China's financial reform," HSBC economists Ma Xiaoping and Qu Hongbin wrote in a report. "The social financing data suggests the policy makers feel comfortable with their current strategy for a gradual recovery of China's economy."

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