BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China has recorded a higher increase in social financing, a broader measure of credit in the economy, in the past year, central bank data showed Friday.
Newly added social financing, a gauge of funds that firms and households get from the financial system, totaled 19.44 trillion yuan (about 3 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2017, up 1.63 trillion yuan from the previous year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement.
This has brought China's outstanding social financing to 174.64 trillion yuan, up 12 percent year on year, according to the PBOC.
Outstanding yuan-denominated loans in the real economy went up 13.2 percent from a year ago to 119.03 trillion yuan by the end of 2017, central bank data showed.
China has decided to maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 as the world's second largest economy strives to balance growth and risk prevention.
"Prudent monetary policy should be kept neutral, the floodgates of monetary supply should be controlled, and credit and social financing should see reasonable growth," said a statement released after the Central Economic Work Conference last month.
