Chinese money trends are puzzling but ominous, suggesting – at a minimum – that the economy will remain weak through H2.

Q2 real GDP growth came in below expectations but there was better news on the nominal side: two-quarter nominal GDP expansion rose for a second quarter as the GDP deflator stabilised – see chart 1.

Chart 1

This improvement tallies with a recovery in six-month rates of change of narrow money and broad credit around end-2023. Money and credit momentum, however, has since slumped, reaching a new record low in June – chart 2.

Chart 2

A post a month ago noted that money – and to a lesser extent credit – numbers have been distorted by a regulatory clampdown on the practice of banks paying supplementary interest. This has resulted in non-financial enterprises (NFEs) moving money out of demand deposits into time deposits and non-monetary instruments such as wealth management products (WMPs), as well as repaying some debt.

The post suggested discounting narrow money weakness and focusing on an expanded broad money aggregate including WMPs. The six-month rate of change of this measure had slowed significantly but was still within – just – the historical range of six-month broad money growth.

That is no longer the case. CICC numbers on WMPs show an outflow in June. Six-month growth of the expanded measure has converged down towards that of conventional broad money – chart 3.

Chart 3

F/x intervention to support the yuan has contributed to monetary weakness but the effect has been minor. Net f/x settlement by banks – which captures spot intervention using the balance sheets of state banks and other institutions – amounted to CNY590 bn ($83 bn) or 0.2% of broad money in the six months to May (a June number is due this week).

Household money growth, it should be emphasised, is stable and respectable: broad money weakness is entirely attributable to a loss of NFE deposits – chart 4. The puzzle is the destination of the “missing” NFE money. Only a small portion is likely to have been used to repay debt: banks’ short-term corporate lending fell in April / May but rebounded to a new high in June.

Chart 4

The focus of monetary weakness on NFEs suggests downside risk to investment and hiring, with negative feedback from the latter to consumer spending.