China's bank credit expanded in May, with new yuan-denominated loans reaching 664.5 billion yuan (about US$97.29 billion) in May, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central, said on Friday.

The May figure brought new yuan-denominated loans in the first five months to 5.84 trillion yuan, far exceeding the full-year target of 5 trillion yuan.

Outstanding loans by financial institutions grew 30.6 percent year on year to 36.21 trillion yuan as of May, the PBOC said.

In the first quarter, China pumped 4.58 trillion yuan worth of new loans into the economy to stimulate growth. However, new bank credit shrank to 591.8 billion yuan in April as the peak season for bank lending ended.

Reminbi deposits grew 1.33 trillion yuan in May, taking outstanding deposits to 54.63 trillion yuan, up 26.27 percent from a year earlier.

M2 -- a broad measure of money supply, which covers cash in circulation and all deposits -- grew 25.74 percent year on year last month to 54.82 trillion yuan.

The narrow measure of money supply, M1 (cash in circulation plus corporate current deposits), was up 18.69 percent year on year to 18.2 trillion yuan, which was 1.21 percentage points higher than the April level.

Outstanding M0, or cash in circulation, hit 3.36 trillion yuan, up 11.24 percent from the same period last year.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2009)