Bank lending in China was weaker than expected in December, data from the People's Bank of China showed Thursday.

Financial institutions extended CNY 454.3 billion in new local currency loans last month, less than the CNY 550 billion expected by economists. This was also below CNY 522.9 billion loans approved in November.

In 2012, total lending in local currency hit CNY 8.2 trillion, up by around CNY 732 billion year-on-year. Foreign currency loans totaled $145.1 billion in 2012.

China's social financing, a measure of liquidity in the economy, stood at CNY 15.76 trillion last year.

PBoC said the country's broad money aggregate of M2 money supply increased 13.8 percent year-on-year in December to CNY 97.42 trillion. Narrow money or M1 totaled CNY 30.87 trillion, up 6.5 percent from the same month last year.

2013-1-10 07:02