China's new yuan-denominated loans totaled 3.13 trillion yuan ($491.8 billion) in March, while new yuan lending in the first quarter went up by 8 percent compared with the same period last year, central bank data showed Monday.

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 9.7 percent year on year to 249.77 trillion yuan at the end of March, according to the People's Bank of China.

The outstanding amount of M1, a narrow measure of money supply which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, stood at 64.51 trillion yuan at the end of March, up 4.7 percent year on year.

The M0, the amount of cash in circulation, went up by 9.9 percent from a year ago to 9.51 trillion yuan at the end of last month.

In the first quarter of 2022, the central bank injected a total of 431.7 billion yuan of net cash into the market, the data showed.

The central bank has taken measures to support the growth of the economy including cuts to interest rates and banks' reserve requirement ratio.

Total social financing hit 12.06 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2022, 1.77 trillion yuan more than the same period last year, preliminary data showed.

Loans denominated in RMB increased by 8.34 trillion yuan in the first quarter, among which, household loans increased by 1.26 trillion yuan.

In the first quarter, the cross-border trade in goods and foreign direct investment settled in RMB amounted to 1.59 trillion yuan and 1.04 trillion yuan respectively.

(With input from Xinhua)