BEIJING -- Businesses and individuals in China are borrowing more again as financial authorities ease up on so-called shadow banks and encourage conventional banks to build up capital to boost lending to small and midsize businesses.
China's outstanding social financing -- a broad measure of credit -- came to 205 trillion yuan ($30.5 trillion) at the end of January, up 10.4% from a year earlier. The growth rate rose by 0.6 percentage point versus December to mark the first monthly increase since July 2017. Borrowing in January alone reached 4.64 trillion yuan, jumping 50% on the year.
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