Chinese banks burst out of the 2014 starting blocks with a four-year high in monthly new lending that appeared to fly in the face of government efforts to rein in credit growth.		中国各银行进入2014年后高速起跑，月度新增贷款达到四年高位，似乎没有理会政府遏制信贷增长的努力。
It is customary for banks in China to lend most heavily at the start of the year, but the numbers this January were unusually strong even accounting for seasonal patterns.		中国各银行在年初集中放贷是符合惯例的，但即使计入季节性因素后，今年1月的放贷数字仍异常强劲。
New local-currency loans reached Rmb1.32tn ($218bn) last month – nearly triple December’s total, Rmb200bn more than market expectations and the highest monthly total since January 2010.		上月人民币新增贷款达到1.32万亿元人民币（合2180亿美元），几乎达到12月总数的三倍，比市场预期高出2000亿元人民币，而且是自2010年1月以来最高的月度总数。
China’s broadest measure of new credit issuance, which includes lending by non-bank financial institutions, also referred to as “shadow banking”, also surged. This measure, known as total social financing, hit Rmb2.58tn, about 25 per cent higher than forecast.		中国最广义的新信贷发放指标（包括有“影子银行”之称的非银行金融机构的放贷）也出现飙升。1月中国的社会融资总量达到2.58万亿元人民币，比预测高出约25%。
The boom in lending augurs well for the Chinese economy in the coming months, allaying fears that higher market interest rates will starve companies of financing and weigh on growth.		放贷繁荣预示着中国经济在未来几个月内前景向好，缓解了较高的市场利率会使企业得不到融资、拖累经济增长的担忧。
But it also adds to concerns that China has become increasingly reliant on debt and that the government is struggling to wean banks and companies off that dependence.		但它加剧了另一方面的担忧，即中国已变得越来越依赖债务，而政府难以推动银行和企业摆脱这种依赖。
“What I take away is, oh my goodness, both [bank lending and total social financing] are very strong again,” said Wang Tao, a UBS economist. “We can see that authorities never intended to tighten as aggressively as some people feared.”		“我得到的印象是，天哪，两个指标（银行贷款和社会融资总量）又这么强劲了，”瑞银(UBS)经济学家汪涛表示。“我们可以看到，当局收紧政策的力度根本不像有些人担心的那么大。”
The Chinese central bank has steadily guided market interest rates higher over the past year, leading to a “cash crunch” last June and a smaller echo in December when the rates at which banks lend to each other spiked toward double-digit levels.		中国央行在过去一年里逐步引导市场利率上升，导致去年6月和12月先后发生两场“钱荒”（后一次程度较轻），期间银行相互拆借的利率向两位数水平飙升。
Many investors and analysts believed this was a sign that China’s new leadership was willing to accept the short-term pain of slower growth in exchange for the long-term gain of a healthier economy with less leverage. Overall debt levels in China have soared from 130 per cent of gross domestic product in 2008 to about 210 per cent last year, an increase that has prompted the International Monetary Fund to warn about the country’s financial stability.		许多投资者和分析师此前认为，这是一个迹象，表明中国的新领导层愿意承受经济较低增长的短痛，以换取杠杆率较低、经济更健康的长远收获。中国的总体债务水平已从2008年占国内生产总值(GDP) 130%飙升至去年的大约210%，这种增长已促使国际货币基金组织(IMF)就中国的金融稳定发出警告。
Yet the strength of lending in January calls that view into question. “Now you know the People’s Bank of China is not really tightening,” Lu Ting, an analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, wrote in a note. “The PBoC’s policy stance remains neutral.”		然而，1月放贷的强劲程度让这一观点受到了质疑。“现在你知道中国央行并非真的在收紧，”美银美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)分析师陆挺在一份简报中写道。“央行的政策立场仍是中性的。”
Whenever money market rates have soared, the central bank has been quick to deliver emergency infusions of cash to the banking system to prevent financial trouble from spreading. That has helped to stabilise market interest rates, albeit at a higher level than in the past.		每当货币市场利率大幅飙升时，中国央行就会迅速向银行体系紧急注入资金，以防财务问题蔓延。这种操作帮助稳定了市场利率——尽管利率水平比过去高了一些。
A closer look at the January credit numbers revealed a potential shift away from shadow bank lending to more on-balance-sheet lending by banks. Though higher than expected, total social financing last month was about the same as the Rmb2.54tn in new credit issued in January of 2013.		仔细看看1月的信贷数字，能看出一个潜在的转变，即从影子银行放贷转向在更大程度上由银行进行表内放贷。虽然高于预期，但上月社会融资总量与2013年1月的2.54万亿元人民币基本相当。
Analysts said this shift, if sustained, would mean Beijing was trying to bring its growing shadow financing sector under control without inflicting excessive damage on the wider economy.		分析师表示，这种转变如果持续下去，将意味着北京方面试图控制住不断增长的影子金融业，同时不对整体经济造成过大损害。
Lending by trust companies – the most important of China’s non-bank financial institutions and ones that have been at the centre of a recent spate of default scares – fell to Rmb104bn, half as much as a year earlier.		信托公司（中国最重要的非银行金融机构，近期接二连三闹出违约恐慌）的放贷降至1040亿元人民币，为去年同期的一半。
“The move by the central bank to tighten shadow lending is effectively forcing banks to bring loans back on to their balance sheets,” said Shen Jianguang, an analyst with Mizuho Securities. The central bank has taken a series of steps in recent months to limit shadow lending, making it harder for banks to funnel cash into off-balance-sheet products.		“央行对影子银行放贷的收紧，起到了迫使银行恢复资产负债表内放贷的效果，”瑞穗证券(Mizuho Securities)分析师沈建光表示。中国央行在近几个月采取一系列措施限制影子贷款，使银行更难将资金转向表外产品。
A January surge in lending is an annual tradition in China. Because the central bank controls lending over the full year through a rough quota system, commercial banks rush to book loans at the start of the year to grab as big a share of the quota as possible.		1月份放贷激增已成了中国一年一度的“传统”。由于央行通过一种粗略的配额制度控制全年放贷，各商业银行在年初急于发放贷款，以争夺尽可能大的配额。
State media reported that lending would have been even stronger this January but for the fact that country’s biggest banks dialled back their credit issuance in the final week of the month under pressure from the central bank.		据官方媒体报道，要不是央行在1月最后一周对各大银行施压，要求收敛放贷，该月的放贷数字本来会更加火爆。