China's new yuan-denominated loans totaled 1.81 trillion yuan ($259.85 billion) in February, as shown by central bank data on Friday.

The figure increased by 592.8 billion yuan compared to the same period last year, according to the People's Bank of China.

"The recovery of loan demand from residents is obvious," said Pang Ming, chief economist for Greater China at JLL. 

The relatively early Spring Festival holiday, this late January, drove the automobile purchases in February, Pang said, which led to a significant improvement in the number of short-term loans taken up by residents.

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 12.9 percent year on year to almost 276 trillion yuan at the end of last month.

The growth rate was 0.3 percentage points higher than the figure seen at the end of January, and was 3.7 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year.

The M1, which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, stood at 65.8 trillion yuan at the end of February, up 5.8 percent year on year.

The M0, which is the amount of cash in circulation, expanded 10.6 percent from a year ago to 10.8 trillion yuan at the end of last month.

In February, the central bank withdrew close to 700 billion yuan of net cash from the market.

Newly added social financing, funds that individuals and non-financial firms receive from the financial system, came in at 3.16 trillion yuan last month, an increase of 1.95 trillion yuan compared to the same period last year.

By the end of February, total outstanding yuan deposits stood at 268 trillion yuan, up 12.4 percent year on year.

(With input from Xinhua)