BEIJING, April 14 (Reuters) - (For more stories on the Chinese economy, click [ID:nECONCN])
China's foreign exchange reserves soared $197.4 billion in the first quarter to $3.0447 trillion, the People's Bank of China said on Thursday.
Chinese banks extended 679.4 billion yuan in net new local-currency loans in March, up from 536 billion yuan in Feburary, the central bank said.
Yuan loans outstanding at the end of March were 17.9 percent higher than a year earlier.
Annual growth in China's broad M2 measure of money supply quickened to 16.6 percent in March from 15.7 percent in February.
The median forecast of economists was for foreign exchange reserves to climb $153 billion in the first quarter to $3 trillion; issuance of 620 billion yuan in loans in March; and a 15.5 percent rise in M2 last month.[ID:nL3E7F618K]
Monthly new yuan loans (billions)
Mar Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May
679 536 1,040 481 564 588 596 545 533 603 639
Yuan loans outstanding (trillions, pct change vs year ago)
Mar Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun
Lvl 49.5 48.9 48.4 47.9 47.4 46.9 46.3 45.7 45.1 44.6
Chg 17.9 17.7 18.5 19.9 19.8 19.3 18.5 18.6 18.4 18.2
Money supply (percent change on a year earlier):
Mar Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun
M2 16.6 15.7 17.2 19.7 19.5 19.3 19.0 19.2 17.6 18.5
M1 15.0 14.5 13.6 21.2 22.1 22.1 20.9 21.9 22.9 24.6
M0 14.8 10.3 42.5 16.7 16.3 16.6 13.8 16.0 15.5 15.7
Foreign exchange reserves (in billions of dollars)
Mar11 Dec10 Sep10 Jun10 Mar10 Dec09 Sep09
3,044.7 2,847.3 2,648.3 2,454.3 2,447.1 2,399.2 2,272.6
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ken Wills)