China credit growth exceeds estimates as lending remains robust

BEIJING: China’s broadest measure of new credit expanded faster than expected, bringing the total of new loans extended last year to roughly equal the size of Italy’s US$1.8 trillion economy.

Aggregate financing remained robust at 1.63 trillion yuan (US$236bil) in December, compared with a median estimate of 1.3 trillion yuan in a Bloomberg survey and 1.74 trillion yuan the prior month.