China's money supply up 16pc

Afp, Beijing

China's broad measure of money supply rose 16 percent year-on-year at the end of August, level with the government's annual target, the central bank said Friday.The latest figures for the M2 measure came after the government recently pledged to give more loans to support the agricultural sector and small companies as part of its efforts to boost growth in face of easing inflation.At the end of July, M2 was up by 16.35 percent, according to previously released official figure.The narrow measure of money supply, M1, was up by 11.48 percent at the end of August from a year earlier, against 13.96 percent at the end of July, according to the central bank.