New yuan-denominated loans slowed to 355.9 billion yuan (US$52.04 billion) in July, sharply down from 1.53 trillion yuan in June, China's central bank said on Tuesday on its website.

The July figure brought new loans in the first seven months to 7.73 trillion yuan, far exceeding the annual target of 5 trillion yuan.

The broad measure of money supply, M2, which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 28.42 percent year on year to 57.3 trillion yuan at the end of July, according to the People's Bank of China.

The narrow measure of money supply, M1 (cash in circulation plus corporate current deposits), was up 26.37 percent to 19.59 trillion yuan.

Renminbi deposits increased 399.3 billion yuan in July. That was compared with a rise of 2 trillion yuan in June.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2009)