(Yicai Global) May 9 -- Growth in China's yuan-denominated loans and new non-government funding, also known as social finance, continued to slow last month after reaching an all-time peak in January.

New yuan loans tallied just over CNY1 trillion (USD147 billion) in April, compared with nearly CNY1.7 trillion in March, the central bank said online today. Additional social financing reached CNY1.36 trillion, also down from CNY2.86 trillion the previous month.

Twenty-one chief economists surveyed by the Yicai Research Institute had predicted on average new loans would reach CNY1.18 trillion in April and new social financing would hit CNY1.65 trillion. Both figures hit all-time highs in January, with new loans totaling more than CNY3.2 trillion and growth in social financing surpassing CNY4.6 trillion.

China's central government introduced social finance in 2011 to better measure liquidity rather than using money supply alone. The scheme helped Chinese leaders supervise fundraising as the country shifted from its lending-based financial system to a state-controlled policy.

Outstanding broad money supply -- known as M2 -- was close to CNY189 trillion (USD27.5 trillion) at the end of last month, up 8.5 percent from a year earlier, according to central bank data. The rise was in line with the average prediction from the chief economists surveyed.

Editor: James Boynton