Economics

China Central Bank Reassures on Policy After Credit Slows

  • Local government debt swap helps slow new yuan loan growth
  • M2 money supply likely to pick up after September: PBOC

The People's Bank Of China headquarters stands in Beijing.

Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
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China’s central bank reassured investors that monetary policy will continue to support the economy after a sharp slowdown in new credit last month, and said the lending slump was temporary.

The deceleration in the growth of new yuan loans in April was mainly due to a pick-up in a program to swap high-cost local government debt for cheaper municipal bonds, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on its website on Saturday. No less than 350 billion yuan ($53.6 billion) of such swaps were conducted last month, while aggregating financing growth was affected partly by a decrease in corporate bond issuance, according to the central bank.