Chinese financial institutions slashed the supply of credit by $90bn in the first quarter, underlining the scale of Beijing’s crackdown on its vast shadow finance system and fuelling fears of a “hard landing” for the world’s second-largest economy.
The scale of the monetary unwinding could pose a bigger threat to emerging market liquidity than the US Federal Reserve’s programme of reducing or “tapering” its asset purchases.
Data released yesterday showed total social financing, the widest official measure, fell by Rmb560bn ($90bn) or 9 per cent year-on-year to Rmb5.6tn in the first quarter. Although not directly comparable, the US Fed has been unwinding its monetary stimulus by $10bn a month since the start of the year.