BEIJING, Jan 15 (Reuters) – New bank loans in China rose quicker than expected in December, as government stimulus measures appeared to gradually whet appetite for credit long suppressed by a property market crisis and tepid domestic demand.
Chinese banks extended 910 billion yuan ($130.54 billion) in new loans in December, up from 390 billion yuan in November and beating expectations, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Thursday.
The figure was above the 800 billion yuan expected by 19 analysts polled by Reuters but lower than the 990 billion recorded in December 2024.
New yuan loans totalled 16.27 trillion yuan for all of 2025, marking the lowest since 2018 and compared with 18.09 trillion yuan in 2024, highlighting weak borrowing needs.
China on Wednesday reported a record trade surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025, as producers made greater efforts to sell to non-U.S. markets to fend off sustained pressure from the Trump administration. But policymakers have struggled to counteract a property slump and spur household consumption.
Household loans, including mortgages, shrank by 91.6 billion yuan in December after a contraction of 206.3 billion yuan in November, while corporate loans grew by 1.07 trillion yuan, according to Reuters calculations.
China’s central bank does not provide monthly breakdowns. Reuters calculated the December figure based on the bank’s January-to-December data and compared it with the January-to-November figure of 2025.
The economy could be seeing the early benefits from a 500-billion-yuan policy-based financial tool that Beijing introduced in September last year to supplement project capital.
China has pledged to stabilise its housing market and boost domestic demand to revive economic growth, stepping up investments in major national projects and extending its consumer trade-in scheme this year.
To boost the economy, the PBOC said on Thursday that the bank will lower interest rate on some structural monetary policy tools by 25 basis points, effective from January 19.
Outstanding yuan loans grew 6.4% in December from a year earlier, the same pace as November, central bank data showed. Analysts had expected 6.3% growth.
Broad M2 money supply grew 8.5% from a year earlier in December, quicker than analysts’ 8% forecast in the Reuters poll. In November, M2 grew 8%.
The narrower M1 money supply was up 3.8% in December from a year earlier, compared with 4.9% growth in November.
Outstanding total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, rose 8.3% from a year earlier in December, down from 8.5% a month earlier.
TSF includes off-balance-sheet forms of financing outside of the conventional bank lending system, such as initial public offerings, loans from trust companies and bond sales.
($1 = 6.9708 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Shi Bu, Kevin Yao and Ellen Zhang; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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