Money supply and lending slows

China's money supply and lending growth slowed in June as government curbs on credit constrained the pace of expansion, the central bank said on its website.

M2, the broadest measure of money supply, grew 18.5 per cent from a year earlier, compared with 21 per cent in May. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey was for a gain of 18.8 per cent. Foreign exchange reserves, already the world's largest, climbed to $US2.45 trillion ($A2.79 trillion) as of the end of June.

New yuan-denominated loans were 603.4 billion yuan ($A101.24 billion) compared with 639.4 billion yuan in May. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was for 600 billion yuan.

The People's Bank of China said last week that money and loans growth in the first half of this year was ''reasonable'' and liquidity in the banking system ''basically appropriate'', suggesting significant policy measures are unlikely in the short term.