China bank lending halves in February after January spike

BEIJING, March 10 (Reuters): The number of new yuan loans made by Chinese banks halved in February and liquidity in the economy tightened, official data showed on Monday, which analysts said indicated the previous month's surge was not a sign of a policy shift.
New bank loans totalled 644.5 billion yuan ($105 billion) in February, the People's Bank of China said, down from 1.3 trillion yuan in January and below market forecasts of 716 billion yuan.
Total social financing, a broad measure of liquidity and credit, fell sharply to 938.7 billion yuan from January's 2.58 trillion yuan.
"They stabilised monetary policy and this is having an effect on demand for loans," said Tim Condon, head of Asia research for ING Financial Markets in Singapore.
M2 money supply grew 13.3 per cent in February from a year earlier, in line with forecasts. Outstanding yuan loans were 14.2 per cent higher than a year earlier, also in line with forecasts.