BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhua) -- China's banks issued a combined 1.11 trillion yuan (163.38 billion U.S. dollars) in new yuan loans last month, the central bank said Wednesday.

May's new loan growth represented an increase of 126.4 billion yuan from a year ago, according to the website of the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

By the end of last month, total outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 113.04 trillion yuan, up 12.9 percent year on year.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, only expanded 9.6 percent from a year earlier by the end of May, an unexpectedly low growth rate.

The PBOC said in a separate statement that the slowdown could be attributed to the ongoing financial de-leveraging.

"Lower M2 growth is likely to become the new normal... There is no need for excessive attention or interpretation," it said. Enditem

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