New loans to Chinese banks fall more than expected

New loans to banks in China fell more than analysts expected last month, and growth in the world's second-largest economy slowed during the same period.

Chinese banks granted new loans at 1.06 trillion yuan ($ 150.06 billion) in July, up from 1.66 trillion yuan in loans last month, according to data released by the People's Bank of China on Monday.

Analysts expected new yuan loans in China to fall to 1.25 trillion yuan last month.

Chinese authorities have aimed to increase lending to businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, in an effort to revive the slow economy recently.

The volume of home loans, mostly for mortgages, fell to 511.2 billion yuan in July from 671.7 billion yuan in June.

Corporate loans reached 297.4 billion yuan last month, down from 910.5 billion yuan the previous month.

M2 money supply grew 8.1% in July year-on-year, up from 8.5% in the previous month and compared to expectations of 8.4%.

The Chinese yuan rose against the US dollar by 0.06% and dropped the green leaf to 7,0580 yuan.