Financial intermediation 2018

By the end of 2018, money supply in a broad sense (M2) was 182.7 trillion yuan($27.61 trillion), reflecting an increase of 8.1 percent. Money supply in a narrow sense (M1) was 55.2 trillion yuan, up by 1.5 percent. Cash in circulation (M0) was 7.3 trillion yuan, up by 3.6 percent.

In 2018, the increase in social financing reached 19.3 trillion yuan, or 3.1 trillion yuan less than that in 2017 on a comparable basis. The balance of social financing  totaled 200.7 trillion yuan at the end of 2018, up by 9.8 percent compared with the end of 2017. Savings deposits in Renminbi and foreign currencies in all branches of financial institutions totaled 182.5 trillion yuan at the end of 2018, an increase of 13.2 trillion yuan compared with the beginning of the year. Of this total, savings deposits in Renminbi stood at 177.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.4 trillion yuan. Loans in Renminbi and foreign currencies in all branches of financial institutions reached 141.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.2 trillion yuan. Of this total, loans in Renminbi were 136.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.2 trillion yuan.

Loans in Renminbi from rural financial institutions (rural credit cooperatives, rural cooperation banks and rural commercial banks) totaled 16.98 trillion yuan by the end of 2018, an increase of 2.0 trillion yuan compared with the beginning of the year. Loans in Renminbi for consumption use from all financial institutions totaled 37.79 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.27 trillion yuan. Of the total, short-term personal loans totaled 8.80 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.0 trillion yuan, and medium and long-term personal loans reached 28.99 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.27 trillion yuan.

Funds raised through domestic exchange markets amounted to 6.44 trillion yuan in 2018, an increase of 1.36 trillion yuan from 2017. Of this total, 105 A-shares were newly issued, raising 137.8 billion yuan worth of capital altogether, down by 92.3 billion yuan. The refinancing of A-shares (including public newly issued, targeted placement, right issued, and preferred stock) raised 550.5 billion yuan, a decrease of 250.4 billion yuan. Various types of market entities financed 5.69 trillion yuan through issuing bonds (including corporate bonds, convertible bonds, exchangeable bonds, financial bonds issued by policy banks, local government bonds and asset-backed securities) on Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, up by 1.77 trillion yuan. In 2018, 577 companies were newly listed on National Equities Exchange and Quotationsand funds raised by listed companies reached 60.4 billion yuan.

In 2018, 7.79 trillion yuan corporate debenture bonds were issued, an increase of 1.92 trillion yuan over 2017.

The premium of primary insurance received by insurance companies totaled 3.80 trillion yuan in 2018, up by 3.9 percent from 2017. Of this total, life insurance premiums of primary insurance amounted to 2.07 trillion yuan, health and casualty insurance premiums of primary insurance 652.4 billion yuan, and property insurance premiums of primary insurance 1.08 trillion yuan. Insurance companies paid an indemnity worth 1.23 trillion yuan, of which life insurance indemnity was 438.9 billion yuan, health and casualty insurance indemnity 201.2 billion yuan, and property insurance indemnity 589.7 billion yuan.

At the end of 2018, China’s foreign exchange reserves reached $3.07 trillion, a decrease of $67.2 billion compared with the end of 2017. The average exchange rate of the year was 6.6174 RMB to 1 USD dollar, a appreciation of  2.0 percent from 2017.