China’s total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, rose to 2.21 trillion yuan ($319.08 billion) in September from 1.52 trillion yuan in August, data from the central bank showed on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
TSF includes off-balance sheet forms of financing that exist outside the conventional bank lending system, such as initial public offerings, loans from trust companies and bond sales.
The People’s Bank of China has revised the way it calculates TSF by adding financial institutions’ asset-backed securities and loan write-offs. It has also added local government special bonds issuance into the TSF calculation from September.
TSF is used as a barometer of fundraising trends and can provide hints of activity in China’s vast and unregulated shadow banking sector. Chinese authorities have been trying to clamp down on riskier forms of lending as part of a broader campaign to contain and reduce systemic financial risks.