China Rate Swap Drops to One-Month Low as New Lending Declines

The cost of locking in China’s interest rates sank to a one-month low as data showed a drop in lending and the slowest money-supply expansion on record.

Aggregate financing, the broadest measure of new credit fell 19 percent from a year earlier to 2.07 trillion yuan ($333 billion) in March and growth in M2 money supply slowed to 12.1 percent from 13.3 percent, the People’s Bank of China reported today. A net 28 billion yuan was added to the financial system today as 50 billion yuan of six-month deposits from the finance ministry were auctioned, 150 billion yuan of repurchase agreements matured and 172 billion yuan of repos were sold.