Chinese credit growth sinks

Friday 16 January 2026

Chinese credit growth data for December was released overnight. It was OK for the month, but the year was terrible, and the components were worse still.

Total social financing was reasonable at 2.2tr yuan. However, broad credit still slowed to 8.3%.

And let’s not forget that this number is being significantly boosted by bond issuance that is only refinancing existing debt.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.