April 11 (Bloomberg) -- China’s new lending surged more than sixfold from a year earlier to a record 1.89 trillion yuan ($277 billion) in March, adding to signs that growth in the world’s third-biggest economy is gathering pace.

M2, the broadest measure of money supply, grew 25.5 percent, the central bank said on its Web site today. That’s the fastest since Bloomberg began compiling data in 1998 and more than the 21.5 percent median estimate in a survey of 12 economists.

President Hu Jintao said April 1 that China’s 4 trillion yuan stimulus plan was taking effect, after urban fixed-asset investment surged 26.5 percent in the first two months. China’s lending boom contrasts with the struggle in the U.S. to rid banks of illiquid assets and efforts by central banks from Switzerland to Japan to unfreeze credit.

“China is unusual in that it has this incredible capacity to mobilize all its institutions -- central government, local governments and the entire banking system -- to boost government-influenced investments,” said Vikram Nehru, the World Bank’s Washington-based chief Asia economist.

China’s banks, which are mostly state-owned, have already met the bulk of the government’s target of at least 5 trillion yuan of new loans this year. Lending may top that level by as much as 3 trillion yuan, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The biggest dangers to China’s economy and financial system come from within, not from outside,” Jiang Zhenghua, former vice chairman of China’s parliamentary standing committee, said at a financial conference in Beijing today. “The biggest of these hidden dangers is the degree of bad loans in China.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides the risk of bad loans, the credit boom may inflate asset prices and increase the likelihood of inflation making a comeback. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index of stocks has climbed about 34 percent this year.

“Some of the money has gone to the property market, some to the stock market,” said Lai at Daiwa Research. “It is not what the central bank wants to see.”

Excessive loan growth may “lead to inflationary pressure in the medium term, exacerbate credit risk and could potentially contribute to higher volatility in the economy,” said Ma Jun, chief China economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Hong Kong.