The People's Bank of China, the central bank, increased money supply to reverse the trend of deflation in 1999, Governor Dai Xianglong said in Beijing on January 20.

Dai told a press conference that the supply of broad money (M2) stood at 12 trillion yuan by the end of 1999, almost reaching the goal of 15 percent set for the year.

According to him, the supply of narrow money (M1) totaled 4.6 trillion yuan by the end of 1999, up 17.7 percent over 1998, and the growth rate was nearly six percentage points higher than that of 1998 and three percentage points higher than the 1999 target.

"The People's Bank of China has realized the target of financial macro-control that was set at the beginning of 1999," Dai said. (Xinhua)