New yuan-denominated lending in China reached 548.5 billion yuan (85.8 billion U.S. dollars) in August, up 9.3 billion yuan year-on-year, the central bank said Sunday.

By the end of August, the outstanding broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 13.5 percent year-on-year to 78.07 trillion yuan, down 1.2 percentage points from July growth and 5.7 percentage points from the same period last year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement on its website.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, increased 11.2 percent year-on-year to 27.33 trillion yuan, down 0.4 percentage points from July and 10.7 percentage points from August last year.

New lending in August was 55.9 billion yuan higher than those increased loans in July.

"The new loans in August were basically in line with my expectation of 550 billion yuan," said Zhao Qingming, a senior researcher with China Construction Bank, one of the country's largest lenders.

Zhao said lending growth was recovering during August because the central bank noted that medium- and small-sized enterprises had difficulty accessing loans and, thus, lessened its liquidity tightening efforts in the markets.

The accelerated construction of government subsidized housing units also helped boost the lending increment in August, Zhao said.

According to the PBOC statement, new yuan-denominated deposits dropped 373.6 billion yuan from August last year to reach 696.2 billion yuan in August.

By the end of August, outstanding yuan-denominated deposits totalled 78.67 trillion yuan, up 15.5 percent year-on-year. The August growth rate was down 0.8 percentage points from July and 4.1 percentage points year-on-year.

Meanwhile, outstanding foreign currencies-denominated deposits stood at 256.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.5 percent year-on-year.