Central Bank of China

PRESS RELEASE Release Date: September 25, 2002




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Financial Conditions (August 2002)

Monetary Aggregates For the month of August 2002, the annual growth rates of the monetary aggregates M1A, M1B and M2, measured on a daily average basis, were 11.87%, 19.06%, and 2.85%, respectively. The M2 aggregate plus bond funds held by the general public posted an annual growth rate of 5.39% for the month. M2 growth fell from the figure recorded in the previous month mainly due to the decrease in net foreign exchange proceeds from external trade, the sustained net foreign capital outflow, as well as the successively increasing demand for bond funds in place of some bank deposits, which curbed bank's credit creation function. For the first eight months of this year, M2 exhibited an average annual growth rate of 3.96%.

Direct and Indirect Finance At the end of August, the annual growth rate of total loans and investments in major financial institutions, including monetary institutions and the Postal Savings System, rose from "4.77% at the end of the previous month to "3.63%. The growth rate rebounded mostly due to the increase in banks' loans to private enterprises as compared with the previous month. If loans and investments extended by life insurance companies and investment and trust companies, major financial institutions' reclassifying non-accrual loans and writing-off bad loans, as well as funds raised directly from financial markets were taken into account, the total funds raised by non-financial sectors showed an annual growth rate of 3.08% for the month.

Tables [EXCEL][PDF]