BEIJING, Dec. 11 -- China's financial institutions issued 708.9 billion yuan (110.8 billion U.S. dollars) worth of new loans in November, slightly higher than forecast and well above October's 513.6 billion yuan, official data showed Friday.

The figure, however, was still 234.7 billion yuan less than the reading registered a year ago, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said in a statement on its website.

The central bank said M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 13.7 percent year on year to 137.4 trillion yuan at the end of November.

The narrow measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, grew 15.7 percent year on year to 38.8 trillion yuan, it said.

Total social finance, a measurement of funds that non-financial firms and households get from the financial system, stood at 1.02 trillion yuan, more than double October's count of 476.7 billion yuan, it said.