China's new yuan-denominated loans stood at 1.08 trillion yuan (about 160 billion U.S. dollars) in December 2018, up 499.5 billion yuan year on year, central bank data showed Tuesday.

The amount of new loans was slightly down from 1.25 trillion yuan in November, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 8.1 percent year-on-year to 182.67 trillion yuan at the end of December.

The M2 growth was up from 8 percent registered a month earlier and flat with a year earlier.

The narrow measure of the money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 1.5 percent year-on-year to 55.17 trillion yuan by the end of last month.

For the whole 2018, new yuan loans reached 16.17 trillion yuan, up 2.64 trillion yuan year on year.

The increase tripled the added yuan loans in the previous year, Zhu Hexin, deputy governor of the PBOC, told a press conference earlier Tuesday.

New yuan loans made to households reached 7.36 trillion yuan last year, while those to non-financial enterprises and government institutions totaled 8.31 trillion yuan.

Newly-added social financing, a measurement of funds that individuals and non-financial firms get from the financial system, stood at 1.59 trillion yuan in December, up 3.3 billion yuan year on year. The number for 2018 was 19.26 trillion yuan, down 3.14 trillion yuan from 2017.

As China is likely to face more complicated circumstances, the central bank will maintain a prudent monetary policy, neither too tight nor too loose, this year, keeping ample market liquidity and reasonable growth in social financing, according to Zhu.