BEIJING -- China's broad measure of money supply rose 14.8 percent in September from a year ago, accelerating from the 13.5-percent growth registered in August, the central bank said Saturday.

The increase was also above the central bank's annual target of 14 percent growth in M2 for 2012 amid a sign of slight loosening in the monetary policy as the country strove to boost growth in the world's second-largest economy.

Outstanding yuan-denominated loans reached 61.51 trillion yuan ($9.72 trillion) at the end of last month, up 16.3 percent year-on-year, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website.

The central bank said outstanding yuan deposits rose 13.3 percent from one year earlier to 89.96 trillion yuan at the end of last month.

The country's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest stockpile, rose to $3.29 trillion at the end of September from $3.24 trillion at the end of June.

The PBOC has twice cut the benchmark interest rates and reserve requirement ratio this year to buoy national economic growth, which slowed to its lowest rate in more than three years in the second quarter of the year.

The country is scheduled to release its third-quarter GDP data on Oct 18, which analysts expected to be below the second-quarter's 7.6 percent increase.