The People's Bank of China said today that the country's new RMB-denominated loans dropped to RMB 700.1 billion in February from RMB 1.36 trillion in January.

At the end of February, the country's outstanding RMB loans were RMB 42.07 trillion, up 27.23% from a year ago.

The nation's outstanding RMB deposits had grown RMB 958.9 billion from a year earlier to RMB 62.25 trillion at the end of the last month.

The PBOC also said China's M2, a broad measure of its money supply, was RMB 63.6 trillion at the end of February, up 25.52% compared with a year ago.

M1, which includes deposits in withdrawal-on-demand accounts and cash in circulation, rose 34.99% year on year to RMB 22.43 trillion in February. M1 grew 38.96% in January.