By Li Hongmei
China's central bank has said that the country's basic money supply reached 103.61 trillion yuan (US$16.7 trillion) as of the end of March, up 15.7% from a year earlier. It is the first time the supply has exceeded 100 trillion yuan (US$16 trillion), according to cs.com.cn, a website for Chinese securities information.
The nation's money supply stood at 97.42 trillion yuan (US$15.7 trillion) at the end of 2012, one and a half times the number in the United States, said the website.
The supply has grown to more than six times the nation's 2002 volume, raising concerns over the possibility that the currency has been over-printed.
The total money supply was 31.12 trillion yuan (US$5 trillion) as of the end of March, up 11.9% from a year earlier. The amount of cash actively traded in the market was 5.57 trillion yuan (US$899 billion), up 12.4% from a year earlier.
