Bank loans fall 33% in April

Money supply rises 16.1%, however.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said Chinese banks made US$129.3 billion in new loans in April compared to US$173 billion in March.

The slowdown in April lending was widely expected as Chinese banks tend to front-load lending early in the year to book as much interest income as possible.

China has given no public forecast for new lending this year. Analysts, however, widely expect a figure near US$1.5 trillion, up from US$1.3 trillion in 2012 to help deliver an official GDP growth target of 7.5% in 2013.

The broad M2 money supply jumped 16.1% in April from a year earlier. PBOC said the growth in April is much higher than expectation while new renminbi loans were in line with market consensus. This was likely a reflection of rising capital inflows, which in turn pushed up domestic money supply.

Analysts expect M2 growth to stay at an annual growth of 15% in the second quarter due to the loose global liquidity conditions.