New loans slowed in February
Chinese new yuan loans were at 885.8B yuan in February, that was below the 950B consensus. At the moment, everything China related is heightened because of fears of an economic slowdown. On Friday, the Shanghai Composite fell 4.4% on soft trade data.
The PBOC is out with some damage control on the latest loan data saying it should be viewed with a long-term perspective and that it's normal. They said the slowdown in Feb was in-line with seasonal trends.
I'm not a big China skeptic and I think they're being fairly honest here. To me the spin says more about the nerves in markets and in general than anything about the economy. Maybe the fears are justified but I don't think this data point is the tell.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite has opened 0.6% higher.
