CBN丨China's yuan loans grow by 18.09 trillion yuan in 2024

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programChina’s new bank loans in December beat forecasts as government support kicks in;Guangdong targets 2025 GDP growth of around 5%.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hoursChinese banks extended 990 billion yuan in new yuan loans in December, up from November and outpacing analysts’ forecasts as government stimulus measures slowly spur credit demand.Financial institutions offered 18.09 trillion yuan of new loans in 2024, according to data released by the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday. It was lower than the previous year’s volume of 22.75 trillion yuan, representing the first annual drop in 13 years.Aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, rose 32.26 trillion yuan, less than the 35.59 trillion yuan recorded in 2023, PBOC figures showed.Broad M2 money supply grew 7.3 percent from a year earlier in December, faster than the 7.1 percent growth the month prior.The narrower M1 money supply fell 1.4 percent in December from a year earlier, from a 3.7 percent drop in November.Outstanding yuan loans grew 7.6 percent in December from a year earlier, slightly slower than 7.7 percent in November.The data also showed that outstanding social financing stood at 408.34 trillion yuan at the end of last month, up 8 percent year on year.Xuan Changneng, deputy governor of the PBOC, said at a press conference on Tuesday that China's overall monetary policy has yielded positive results in 2024. He highlighted that the year-on-year growth of social financing, the M2 and yuan loans surpassed the nominal economic growth rate.Xuan also indicated that the PBOC will implement a moderately loose monetary policy this year. A comprehensive use of monetary policy tools, such as interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio, will be employed to ensure ample liquidity and an accommodative financing environment, he said.Greater Bay Area, Greater futureChina's manufacturing heartland Guangdong province has set a GDP growth target of about 5 percent for 2025, Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong said Wednesday. Despite mounting external pressures and internal challenges, the GDP of the southern province was estimated to surpass 14 trillion yuan in 2024, topping the country for 36 consecutive years, said Wang as he delivered a government work report at the annual session of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress. Total import and export volume has exceeded 9 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.8 percent, contributing 38.7 percent to the national increase. Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link opened to traffic in 2024, with average daily traffic volume over 80,000 vehicles. Traffic volume of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge increased by 90 percent, with more than 4.5 million Hong Kong and Macao vehicles heading north. Guangdong's regional innovation capacity has ranked first in China for 8 consecutive years. The R&D expenditure of Guangdong reached about 510 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for 3.6 percent of its GDP.Hong Kong recorded steady growth in visitor arrivals in 2024, the city’s tourism chief said on Wednesday, putting the number of whole-year visitor arrivals at close to 45 million. After the resumption of the multiple-entry Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), the number of mainland visitor arrivals in December exceeded 3.1 million, averaging over 100,000 people per day, which is 17 percent higher than the daily average in the previous month.Next on industry and company newsChina's second domestically-built large cruise ship completed hull assembly on Tuesday, marking the start of its rapid construction phase. The cruise is slated for delivery in 2026. From dock assembly to hull integration, the process took just nine months — two months faster than its predecessor, Adora Magic City. The hull of the ship measures 341 meters in length and 37.2 meters in width and it has been named Adora Flora City.Moutai’s net profit rose 10.2 percent to 120.7 billion yuan last year from the prior one, while revenue jumped 13.3 percent to 187 billion yuan, the Chinese liquor giant said today. Investment in R&D climbed 11 percent, it added.Jensen Huang has reportedly arrived in Shenzhen for employees’ annual Lunar New Year celebrations held at Nvidia’s Shenzhen base on Wednesday. Huang also planned to visit Shanghai and Beijing, media reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The chief of the US chip giant has embarked on a trip to China this week at a time when Beijing is investigating the company’s domestic presence and Washington is slapping new curbs on the sale of its AI chips abroad.Manufacturing giant Foxconn and Shenzhen-based humanoid robot company UBTECH announced on Wednesday that the two companies will establish a strategic partnership to advance the integration of UBTECH's humanoid robots into Foxconn's intelligent manufacturing processes.Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor launched three new electric models under its Maxus brand, the Dana V1, the V70, and the V90, in Israel yesterday. The Maxus brand debuted in the Israeli market in 2021.Shanghai authorities had preliminary talks with Taylor Swift’s team about the possibility of her holding a concert in the city, Zhang Qi, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, told media yesterday. “We are optimistic, there may be hope for this year,” he added.Switching gears to financial newsThe PBOC on Wednesday injected a net 958.4 billion yuan of cash via seven-day reverse repurchase agreements in daily open market operations, a near-historic amount of short-term funds into its financial system, dialing up liquidity support amid a cash squeeze with the new year holiday looming.China's cross-border receipts and payments by non-banking sectors, including firms and individuals, rose 14.6 percent to a record high of USD14.3 trillion last year from the prior one, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange yesterday. China's commercial banks saw a forex settlement deficit of USD110.3 billion in 2024.Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock marketChinese stocks fell on Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite down 0.4 percent and the Shenzhen Component closing 1 percent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and the TECH index each added 0.3 percent.