PBOC tops central banks in total assets

The total assets of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the nation's central bank, have ballooned up 119 percent to 28 trillion yuan ($4.5 trillion) in the past five years, making it the world's biggest central bank in terms of total assets, China Business News reported, citing a report from the Standard Chartered Bank.

The PBOC has outpaced the European Central Bank (ECB) whose total assets reached $3.5 trillion at the end of 2011. The Federal Reserve came in as the third largest with total assets of $3 trillion.

The Standard Chartered report said China's central bank, instead of ECB or the Federal Reserve, is now the major supplier of the global liquidity. The PBOC saw an increase of 146 percent in its broad money supply (M2) during the last five years. In 2011 alone, China's M2 supply accounted for 52 percent of the world's total.

The report attributed China's M2 boom to the bank's credit expansion, government's incentive measures which relying on credit and created demand to combat economic slowdown and the PBOC's purchase of foreign exchanges to stabilize renminbi rate.

Yet, that sharp increase of M2 would create inflationary pressure, so the growth rate may slow down in the future, the Standard Chartered report added, predicting the nation's M2 growth rate to stand between 13 to 14 percent this year, lower than the rates in previous years.