China's lending and money supply grew at a faster pace than expected as the country relaxed its credit restrictions.
New loans worth 640.5bn yuan ($101bn; £65.6bn) were issued in December, up from 562.2bn yuan in November.
Last month, the central bank cut the amount of money banks have to hold in reserve for the first time since 2008.
Chinese authorities are seen to be spurring domestic growth amid fears of a slowdown in the US and Europe.
China had previously been struggling to tame high inflation and therefore the central bank had been tightening monetary policy.
However, analysts said the lending figures out on Sunday shows a shift in policy towards easing to encourage lending.
"The policy easing signal is becoming clearer," said Wang Hu, from Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai. "We think the central bank will continue to loosen credit in the coming months."
Beating estimates
Both lending and money supply growth beat analyst expectations.
China's total cash in circulation and all deposits rose 13.6% in December compared to the same month last year.
That is an acceleration from the November figure of 12.7%. Analysts were expecting money supply to grow to 12.9%.
New loans were expected to hit 580bn yuan in December.
