China's new yuan loans down sharply in October

China's new yuan loans fell sharply in October, official data showed Friday, which analysts said reflected seasonal factors and the government's efforts to contain financial risks.

New yuan-denominated loans in October shrank by nearly half from a month ago to 651.3 billion yuan (about 95.78 billion U.S. dollars), the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website.

The sharp fall was mainly because a week-long holiday ate into business hours and banks eased into the year end with loan quotas depleted, Bloomberg Chief Asia Economist Tom Orlik said in a research note, adding that the government's efforts to clamp down on financial risks are also a cause.

The breakdown of the new loan data showed household borrowing continuing to dominate, accelerating to 22.3 percent annual growth from 21.4 percent in September. With most of that representing home mortgages, strong housing sales are likely to continue a bit, even as the government moves more aggressively to control prices, Orlik said.

Analysts expected home mortgages to gradually drop with the government's continued tightening measures to cool the sizzling real estate market.

The central bank data also showed newly added social financing, a gauge of funds that firms and households get from the financial system, increased by more than 330 billion yuan from the same period a year ago to 896.3 billion yuan.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 11.6 percent year on year to 151.95 trillion yuan by the end of October.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 23.9 percent year on year to 46.54 trillion yuan.