BEIJING (Reuters – Chinese banks granted 1.89 trillion yuan ($282.62billion) in new yuan loan in May. They are rebounding strongly from April, and surpassing analysts’ predictions as they try to reverse a COVID-induced sharp economic slump.

Reuters polled analysts to predict that new yuan loan would rise to 1.3 trillion yuan by May, from 645.4 billion yuan last month and 1.5 trillion yuan a calendar year ago.

The broad M2 money supply grew 11.1% over a year ago, data from central banks showed Friday. This is higher than the 10.4% estimate in the Reuters poll. From a year earlier, M2 increased 10.5% in April.

From a year ago, outstanding yuan loans saw 11.0% growth in May, compared with 10.9% growth for April. Analysts expected 10.7% growth.

($1 = 6.6875 renminbi)