By Fei Ya (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-13 09:52

China's financial system remained stable in August, the central bank said yesterday.

The annual growth in the broad measure of money supply, or M2, was 18.09 percent in August from the same period last year, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The narrow measure of money supply, or M1, continued to grow in August at 22.77 percent year-on-year, the PBOC said.

In August, new bank loans increased 302.9 billion yuan as total bank loans rose to 27.1 trillion yuan (US$3.59 trillion), an increase of 16.96 percent year-on-year.

Total bank deposits increased 646.2 billion yuan in August. But household bank deposits continued to slide, falling 41.8 billion yuan from July.

Consumer price index increased 6.5 percent in August from a year earlier mainly on food costs.

Jun Ma, chief economist at Deutsche Bank (Hong Kong), said he believes the likely timing of next interest rate rise will be in the second half of September.

PBOC raised the amount that commercial banks must hold in reserves to 12.5 percent last week, in order to strengthen liquidity management in the banking system and curb the fast rise in loans.

Earlier in August, the central bank had raised interest rates for the fourth time this year.