Chinese banks extended record highs of 2.51 trillion yuan ($A539.4 billion) of new loans in January, well above market expectations, while growth in broad money supply also quickened to 19-month high, central bank data shows.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected new yuan loans to surge to a near seven-year high of 1.8 trillion yuan in January, tripling from 597.8 billion yuan in December.
Analysts attributed the lending spike to increased cash injections by the central bank ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in early February, a traditional tendency among Chinese banks to "front load" loans at the start of a year and reduced foreign borrowings.
"Chinese banks expanded their balance sheet aggressively in the first month of this year, which implies that an implicit support from the government to counter the economic slowdown," said Zhou Hao, Commerzbank Asia senior emerging markets economist in Singapore.
The People's Bank of China injected 1.53 trillion yuan in liquidity via its standing lending facility (SLF), medium-term lending facility (MLF) and pledged supplementary lending (PSL) ahead of the long holiday to avert any risks of a cash crunch.
China is expected to target economic growth in a range of 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent this year, sources have said, setting a range for the first time because policymakers are uncertain about the economy's prospects.
The world's second-largest economy grew 6.9 per cent in 2015, its weakest expansion in a quarter of a century, as activity was weighed down by sluggish demand at home and abroad, massive industrial overcapacity, cooling investment and a weak property market.
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