China's foreign exchange reserves hit 154.7 billion US dollars at the end of 1999, 9.8 billion US dollars more than that of a year earlier, according to a report released by the People's Bank of China in Beijing on January 12.

The report says that the monetary policies adopted by the central bank to coordinate the state's macro-economic policies forexpanding domestic demand have achieved notable results in 1999, with sufficient money supply for economic growth.

The report cites statistics as saying that by the end of 1999, the outstanding amount of broad money (M2) increased by 14.7 percent year-on-year to 11.9 trillion yuan, hitting the expected controlling target.

The outstanding amount of narrow money (M1) was over 4.58 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.7 percent, or nearly six percentage points, from at the end of the previous year.

The central bank also reported a yearly 20.1 percent rise in the outstanding amount of money in circulation (M0), which stood at more than 1.34 trillion yuan at the end of 1999, when 225.1 billion yuan of cash was put into circulation.

According to the statistics, the outstanding amount of loans extended by all financial institutions was more than 9.37 trillionyuan at the end of last year, up 12.5 percent, or 1.08 trillion yuan, from a year earlier in terms of comparable terms.

The outstanding amount of deposits with the financial institutions increased 13.7 percent year on year to more than 10.87 trillion yuan, with a 14.5 percent growth in corporate deposits.

Rural and urban residents' deposits showed an increase of 11.6 percent to reach 5.96 trillion yuan at the end of 1999, but the growth rate was 5.5 percentage points lower than a year earlier.