China’s money supply, or M2, rose 11.1% year on year to 209.35 trillion yuan (US$29.53 trillion) at the end of April, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the country’s central bank.
The growth rate of M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, at the end of last month was 1 percentage point higher than that at the end of March and 2.6 percentage points higher from one year ago.
The narrow measure of the money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, stood at 57.02 trillion yuan at the end of April, up 5.5% from a year ago. China has been adding liquidity into a coronavirus-hit market via a wide range of monetary tools, resorting to targeted credit support rather than a massive stimulus to shore up the economy.
Measures such as targeted cuts in reserve requirement ratios for small banks were taken to ease the liquidity strain of small and medium-sized enterprises. As the country stepped up credit support to inject liquidity into the real economy, China’s new yuan-denominated loans hit 1.7 trillion yuan in April, a year-on-year rise of 681.8 billion yuan, the PBoC said.
Loans in the household sector and the corporate sector increased by 666.9 billion yuan and 956.3 billion yuan, respectively, with medium and long-term loans accounting for the majority.
Aggregate financing
Aggregate financing to the real economy amounted to 3.09 trillion yuan in April 2020, up 1.42 trillion yuan year-on-year, according to the PBoC.
Yuan loans to the real economy registered an increase of 1.62 trillion yuan, 750.6 billion yuan more than the increase in the same period of 2019. Foreign currency-denominated loans to the real economy (yuan equivalent) recorded an increase of 91 billion yuan, 124.0 billion yuan more than the increase of the same period of 2019.
China’s domestic demand improved significantly after companies resumed production and operations, said Wen Bin, chief analyst of China Minsheng Bank. The trend helped boost medium and long-term loans to enterprises last month, he said.
Automobile sales
Automobile sales increased by 4.4% year on year to 2.07 million units last month, ending a contraction over the past 21 months, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Output hit 2.1 million units, up 2.3% year on year.
The rebound was due to a slew of government stimulus measures and the accelerating restoration of business activities. Monthly, the output and sales soared 46.6% and 43.5%, respectively.
Output and sales of commercial cars both hit a monthly record high in April, climbing 31.3% and 31.6% year on year to 514,000 units and 534,000 units, respectively. Meanwhile, the output of new energy vehicles slid 22.1% year on year, while sales dropped 26.5%, said the CAAM.
During the first four months, China’s auto production and sales came in at 5.6 million units and 5.76 million units, down 33.4% and 31.1% year on year, respectively.
Company news
Ren Zhengfei, founder and president of Huawei Technologies, told the South China Morning Post in an interview on March 24 that the company has been developing 6G technology, along with 5G, according to a transcript of the interview on Huawei’s website on Monday.
A lot of breakthroughs have not yet been made during Huawei’s development in 6G, Ren said. The 6G application could only be used by people in 10 years, he said.
Ren admitted that Huawei’s growth has been slowed by the Covid-19 epidemic. But he added that more than 90% of its research and development works have been resumed.
Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of Gree Electric Appliances, sold more than 310 million yuan of home appliances in a three-hour sales event via Kuaishou, a short-video and livestreaming platform in China.
This compares to Gree’s 2019 annual sales revenue of 350 million yuan at its official online shop.
The livestreaming session, hosted by Dong and other internet celebrities, sold mainly air-conditioners and air purifiers with discounts. They attracted about 16 million viewers.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, livestreaming shopping boomed as a new way to spur sales in China. More and more businesspeople, manufacturers and government officials are using livestreaming platforms to deliver their messages publicly.
The story was written by Xu Jiangshan and Nadeem Xu and first published at ATimesCN.com.