Scoop on China’s bank lending data

Reuters was alone on March 2 in reporting that net new lending by China’s Big Four banks fell nearly 40 percent in February, a huge drop after the government’s pressure on banks to restrain credit and prevent an overheating of the economy. The scoop was a valuable pointer for global investors, who are tracking monthly loans data to judge how sharply China is tightening credit. It attracted so much attention that both Bloomberg and Dow Jones were forced to pick up the Reuters story.