China's social financing scale expanded robustly in January 2026, exceeding market forecasts and signaling steady momentum in the country's financial support for the real economy.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, reported on Friday that the increment of social financing reached 7.22 trillion yuan ($1.05 trillion) in January, up by 166.2 billion yuan year on year. By end-January, outstanding social financing totaled 449.11 trillion yuan, up 8.2 percent year on year.

Broad money supply (M2) stood at 347.19 trillion yuan, growing 9.0 percent year on year.

Personal loans also saw stable expansion. Total RMB loans reached 276.62 trillion yuan, up 6.1 percent year on year.

(Cover via VCG)