China Credit Slowdown Worse Than Forecast as Loan Demand Weakens

China’s credit expansion slowed more than expected from a year earlier, as continued weakness in household and business demand holds back borrowing.

Aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, increased 5.2 trillion yuan ($765 billion) in March, down from 5.9 trillion yuan a year ago, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the People’s Bank of China on Monday. That was below the median forecast of about 5.6 trillion yuan by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.