According to statistics,at the end of last year there was 15.8 trillion yuan in outstanding broad money (M2), up 14.4 percent from the previous year; six trillion yuan in narrow money (M1), up 12.7 percent; and money in circulation (M0) reached 1.6 trillion yuan, up 7.1 percent.

In 2001 the cash input stood at 103.6 billion yuan,16.1 billion yuan less than the previous year.

A PBOC spokesman said that the money supply growth was six percentage points higher than the sum of the GDP growth and price hikes,indicating that the money supply is appropriate.

At the end of last year, outstanding deposits stood at 14.4 trillion yuan, up 16percent from the previous year. Of these, corporate deposits made up 5.2 trillion yuan, up 16.9 percent; savings by residents were 7.4 trillion yuan, up 14.7 percent.

At the same time, the outstanding loans were 11.2trillion yuan, up 11.6 percent from the previous year. Loans to agriculture, individual consumption and note discount saw big increases, which helped to rationalize loan structure and improve loan quality.

The country's foreign exchange reserves were 212.2 billion US dollars, up 28.1 percent from the previous year. The exchange rateof the local currency Renminbi was one US dollar for 8.2766 yuan, appreciating by 15 basic points.

The spokesman said that this year the central bank will continue to implement prudent monetary policies and regulate the money supply with various monetary policy tools.

(eastday.com January 18, 2002)