(Yicai Global) Sept. 18 -- The total amount of money sitting idle in the banking sector has dropped, indicating that measures introduced by the government to curb the tendency of capital outflow from the real economy toward the fictitious economy have started to bear fruit, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said Sept. 15, citing the latest statistics.

Interbank assets and liabilities contracted by 13.8 percent and 1.6 percent annually or USD490 billion (CNY3.2 trillion) and CNY1.4 trillion, respectively, as of the end of August. Small to medium-sized banks saw a 45-percent decline in interbank businesses following a steep rise earlier this year, CBRC data show.

The contraction in interbank lending was accompanied by a continuous slowdown in wealth management market growth in the past seven months. The total value of outstanding wealth management products grew 6.5 percent as of the end of last month, marking a 27-percentage point decrease in the growth rate compared with that recorded for last year. The volume of the interbank financial product market has gone down CNY2.2 trillion year-to-date.

Compared with last year, special-purpose-vehicle investment growth took a dive of 36.7 percent (about CNY4 trillion) to around CNY800 billion as of the end of last month. SPV investment is a key indicator of the amount of idle funds in the banking industry and financial leverage.

The banking sector has consistently increased support for the real economy in lending operations. New bank loans totaled CNY10.3 trillion in the first eight months of the year. The proportion of new loans to new assets created in the period rose 37.8 percent on the year.

As of the end of last month, manufacturing loans grew 1.6 percent, up 2.3 percentage points annually, and up 0.6 percentage point from the end of June. Loans granted to small businesses and to affordable housing, agricultural and infrastructure construction projects rose 16 percent, 25.9 percent, 10.2 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively.