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BEIJING, July 12-- Chinese banks extended 7.97 trillion yuan (about 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars) of new yuan-denominated lending in the first half of the year, but broad money supply growth has continued a downward trend, the country's central bank said Wednesday. The lending volume represents growth of 436 billion yuan from the same period last year, the People's Bank of China said in a statement. By the end of June, total outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 115 trillion yuan, up 12.9 percent year on year. In June alone, a total of 1.54 trillion yuan of yuan-denominated loans were issued by Chinese banks, an increase of 153 billion yuan from June last year. M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, expanded 9.4 percent from a year earlier as of the end of June, slowing down from a 9.6 percent growth recorded a month ago, the statement said. M0, the amount of cash in circulation, was up 6.6 percent to 6.7 trillion yuan. M1, a narrow measure of money supply which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 15 percent to 51 trillion yuan, slowing from a 17 percent increase in May. The newly added total social financing, another significant financing gauge, increased by 1.36 trillion yuan from the same period a year ago to 11.2 trillion yuan in the first half. Ruan Jianhong, head of the central bank's surveys and statistics department, said the increase in total social financing indicated solid financial support for the real economy, while the slower M2 expansion was a result of financial deleveraging. | 
