A woman counts Chinese yuan banknotes as she sells tickets for a job fair in Beijing.
Beijing: Chinese bank lending surged in January, the central bank said yesterday, as concerns grow that a flood of credit is increasing financial risks in the world's second-largest economy.
New loans extended by banks rose to 2.03trn yuan ($300bn), nearly twice the 1.04trn yuan in December, said the People's Bank of China.
Analysts have been raising the alarm over the surge in China's debt as Beijing has flooded the market with credit to prop up economic growth.
In an attempt to reduce risks, the central bank has rolled out monetary tightening policies in recent weeks, raising short-term borrowing rates for the first time since 2013.
In a separate statement the central bank said total social financing -- an alternative measure of credit in the real economy -- rose dramatically to 3.74trn yuan in the month, compared to 1.63trn yuan in December.
The growth of long-term residential housing loans to a record 623bn yuan shows that the red-hot real-estate market has not cooled despite tighter government restrictions, analyst Liu Dongliang of China Merchant's Bank said in a note.
But the data showing strong demand for loans also points to stability for the economy in the first half of the year, Liu added.
Figures released yesterday showed that consumer and producer prices climbed in January, raising hopes China may begin to export much-needed inflation to the global economy.
Last week data showed that exports and imports surged more than expected, while manufacturing activity continued to grow.
