The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said Thursday that new yuan-denominated loans stood at 2.24 trillion yuan (342.83 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2011.

The figure was 352.4 billion yuan less than that in the same period of last year, said the PBOC in a statement on its website.

By the end of March, the balance of outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 49.47 trillion yuan, up 17.9 percent from a year earlier. The rise was 0.2 percentage points higher than that in February and 2percentage points lower than that at the end of 2010.

China's broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 16.6 percent year on year to 75.81 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2011. The rise was 0.9 percentage points higher than that in February and 3.1 percentage points lower than that at the end of last year.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits, climbed 15 percent from a year earlier to 26.63 trillion yuan. The increase was 6.2 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2010.

New yuan-denominated deposits stood at 3.98 trillion yuan in the first three months of this year. The figure was 54.5 billion yuan more than that in the same period of last year. ' The balance of outstanding yuan-denominated deposits rose 19 percent year on year to 75.28 trillion yuan by the end of March. The rise was 1.4 percentage points higher than that in February and 1.2 percentage points lower than that at the end of last year.

New yuan-denominated lending reached 7.95 trillion yuan last year, exceeding government's 7.5-trillion-yuan target ceiling.