The People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, announced on Dec. 14 that new yuan-denominated loans in November declined from the previous month amid a slowing economy.

The PBOC data showed new yuan loans last month rose 7.8 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) year-on-year to 562.2 billion yuan.

However, on a monthly basis, the figure was down 24.6 billion yuan compared to that in October, signaling strains faced by the nation's banks to lend under high requirements to set aside reserves.

New loans began picking up steam in October after the nation's economic growth slowed to 9.1 percent in the third quarter, down from 9.7 percent in the first quarter and 9.5 percent in the second.

Previous data showed new yuan-denominated lending in October reached 586.8 billion yuan in October, the biggest monthly lending since the third quarter this year. New loans in the month saw a sharp rise from 470 billion yuan in September.

A key economic work conference that wrapped up Wednesday had set the tone that the country will seek stable and relatively fast economic growth next year amid the "extremely grim and complicated" global outlook.

Zhu Baoliang, deputy director of the Economic Forecast Department of the State Information Center, a government think tank, said that China must stabilize economic growth to prevent a sharp plunge, which might dampen employment and cause social problems.

The country will preset or fine-tune monetary policy according to changes in economic development, employ multiple monetary policy tools and maintain "reasonable increase" in money and credit supply, according to a statement released after the conference.

To ease banks' credit crunch amid easing price pressure since July and decreasing yuan funds outstanding for foreign exchanges in October, the PBOC cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 basis points for the first time in three years on Dec. 5.

The consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 4.2 percent year-on-year in November, easing from a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July. Further, yuan funds stemming from foreign exchanges dropped in October on a month-on-month basis for the first time in nearly four years, pointing to less pressure to tighten credit supplies.

Analysts say under the target of achieving stable growth next year, monetary polices are expected to gradually and marginally relax. A further cut of the RRR will be necessary to increase banks' credit lending capacities. Currently the RRR still remains at elevated levels -- 21 percent for large commercial banks and 17.5 percent for mid- and small-sized banks.

Data released Wednesday also showed that by the end of November, the outstanding broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 12.7 percent year-on-year to 82.55 trillion yuan, according to data released by the PBOC.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, increased 7.8 percent year-on-year to 28.14 trillion yuan by the end of last month.

New yuan deposits last month fell sharply to 324.7 billion yuan, down 262.6 billion yuan year-on-year. Outstanding yuan-denominated deposits totaled 79.51 trillion yuan as of the end of last month, up 13.1 percent year-on-year, however, the growth rate was 6.5 percentage points lower compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, outstanding foreign currencies-denominated deposits stood at 266.8 billion U.S. dollars, up 12.9 percent year-on-year. New deposits of foreign currencies rose 4.1 billion U.S. dollars year-on-year.