New Yuan Loans in China

Measures the net yuan-denominated credit extended by China's banking system during the month, a key gauge of credit stimulus and of the transmission of People's Bank of China (PBOC) monetary policy to the real economy.

The PBOC publishes cumulative year-to-date lending in its monthly Financial Statistics Report; the net monthly figure is derived by subtracting the previous month's YTD total (in January, the YTD equals the monthly figure). It is expressed in billions of yuan.

A sharp rise in new loans signals credit expansion and stimulus; a fall (or a weak print) points to deleveraging or soft credit demand, which matters for China's growth outlook and for the yuan and China-linked assets.

Highly seasonal (typically high in January-March and low the rest of the year), so a year-on-year comparison is more meaningful than a month-on-month one. Being derived from the difference between coarsely rounded cumulative totals, rounding can introduce a small margin in the monthly figure.