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China data shows liquidity outpaces economic growth

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's outstanding total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of liquidity in the economy, rose to 122.86 trillion yuan (13 trillion pounds) at the end of 2014, up 14.3 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said on Tuesday.

This is the first time the People's Bank of China has released data on outstanding TSF, which captures lending outside traditional loans, such as trust loans and other forms of shadow financing. Previously, it only published incremental TSF data.

Policymakers have been trying to reduce the economy's reliance on credit and investment - a legacy of massive stimulus launched during the height of the global crisis in 2008-09, but they have to tread cautiously to keep economic growth on track.

The government is also reining in riskier types of lending while trying to ensure that more funds from shadow financing are invested in the real economy rather than speculative activities.

The central bank said outstanding TSF has kept an annual average growth of 19.3 percent since 2002, 2.7 percentage points faster than loan growth.

TSF, which measures money offered domestically via mainly financial institutions but also by non-financial entities, was equivalent to 193 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, 69.6 percentage points higher than in 2002, it added.

Outstanding local-currency loans for the real economy hit 81.43 trillion yuan at the end of 2014, up 13.6 percent on the year and accounted for 66.3 percent of TSF, the central bank said in a statement on its website.

The share of new loans in TSF dropped from 86.8 percent in 2002.

Entrusted loans totalled 9.33 trillion yuan at the end of 2014, up 29.2 percent from a year ago, while trust loans climbed 10.7 percent to 5.35 trillion yuan, it said.

Undiscounted bankers' acceptances were at 6.76 trillion yuan, down 1.8 percent from a year earlier. Outstanding corporate bonds were at 11.69 trillion yuan, up 25.8 percent.

The TSF data has become an increasingly important gauge of financial activity in China as the authorities tackle slowing growth amid rising risk of credit defaults.

The government is expected to lower its GDP target to around 7 percent this year, after the economy grew 7.4 percent in 2014 - the slowest pace in 24 years.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao and Judy Hua; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jacqueline Wong)