In the first three quarters, ordinary people added 9.39 trillion yuan to their bank accounts and paid back 1.03 trillion yuan in loans. Saving and repaying debt are essentially the same thing: holding on tight to your money and waiting.
On October 14, the central bank released its financial statistics for the first three quarters. Renminbi deposits increased by 20.76 trillion yuan in total, with household deposits contributing 9.39 trillion yuan—nearly half.
The other half of the report was even more straightforward. Household loans didn’t grow; they actually fell, declining by a net 1.03 trillion yuan over three months. Short-term loans fell by 1.14 trillion yuan, while medium- and long-term loans rose by just 106.2 billion yuan. Short-term borrowing took a hard hit, as credit card debt and consumer loans contracted. Medium- and long-term lending still saw a little growth. Mortgage lending hasn’t stopped, but that’s about all you can say.
Two questions have been trending on Zhihu in recent days. One asks why so many people would rather keep their money in bank accounts than spend it, and has 1.1 million views. The other asks whether young people’s new trend of simply getting by is a return to rationality or a forced retreat, and has 1.89 million views. Read together, they’re asking the same thing.
My take: don’t rush to label this deflation. It looks more like self-preservation. Saving is a way of discounting future income; paying off loans early is a way of correcting for the high interest rates of the past. Each makes sense on its own. Put them together, and you get a picture of everyone shrinking their balance sheets.
The same money people want to leave sitting idle has a third destination in another system.
According to the latest page on RWA.xyz, tokenized U.S. Treasury funds hold around $14.88 billion on-chain. Circle’s USYC has $2.41 billion, Ondo’s USDY $2.3 billion, and BlackRock’s BUIDL $2.25 billion. The three are neck and neck.
These products yield an average of 3.6% annualized over seven days. At the same time, the cost of borrowing from one another in China’s interbank market is 1.4%. One is on the ground, the other on-chain. The same idea of letting money sit comes with different rates on the sign.
It’s not just depositors who are moving their money. On October 15, Mastercard launched its Global Money Platform, bringing stablecoins and fiat currency together in a single multi-currency account. One API handles conversions, card issuance, and local bank payouts, and stablecoin-linked cards can be issued in more than 130 countries. It’s Mastercard’s first major move since acquiring BVNK in August this year.
I don’t know how big this story will get. There’s a more than 600-fold difference between $14.88 billion and 9.39 trillion yuan, and domestic depositors generally can’t access these platforms; most are open only to qualified investors. But I can say one thing for certain: more money than ever wants to sit idle, and there are now several places for it to do so, each with a different interest rate.
$USDC $ETH $ONDO #央行数据 #居民存款 #代币化美债 #RWA #Stablecoin
On October 14, the central bank released its financial statistics for the first three quarters. Renminbi deposits increased by 20.76 trillion yuan in total, with household deposits contributing 9.39 trillion yuan—nearly half.
The other half of the report was even more straightforward. Household loans didn’t grow; they actually fell, declining by a net 1.03 trillion yuan over three months. Short-term loans fell by 1.14 trillion yuan, while medium- and long-term loans rose by just 106.2 billion yuan. Short-term borrowing took a hard hit, as credit card debt and consumer loans contracted. Medium- and long-term lending still saw a little growth. Mortgage lending hasn’t stopped, but that’s about all you can say.
Two questions have been trending on Zhihu in recent days. One asks why so many people would rather keep their money in bank accounts than spend it, and has 1.1 million views. The other asks whether young people’s new trend of simply getting by is a return to rationality or a forced retreat, and has 1.89 million views. Read together, they’re asking the same thing.
My take: don’t rush to label this deflation. It looks more like self-preservation. Saving is a way of discounting future income; paying off loans early is a way of correcting for the high interest rates of the past. Each makes sense on its own. Put them together, and you get a picture of everyone shrinking their balance sheets.
The same money people want to leave sitting idle has a third destination in another system.
According to the latest page on RWA.xyz, tokenized U.S. Treasury funds hold around $14.88 billion on-chain. Circle’s USYC has $2.41 billion, Ondo’s USDY $2.3 billion, and BlackRock’s BUIDL $2.25 billion. The three are neck and neck.
These products yield an average of 3.6% annualized over seven days. At the same time, the cost of borrowing from one another in China’s interbank market is 1.4%. One is on the ground, the other on-chain. The same idea of letting money sit comes with different rates on the sign.
It’s not just depositors who are moving their money. On October 15, Mastercard launched its Global Money Platform, bringing stablecoins and fiat currency together in a single multi-currency account. One API handles conversions, card issuance, and local bank payouts, and stablecoin-linked cards can be issued in more than 130 countries. It’s Mastercard’s first major move since acquiring BVNK in August this year.
I don’t know how big this story will get. There’s a more than 600-fold difference between $14.88 billion and 9.39 trillion yuan, and domestic depositors generally can’t access these platforms; most are open only to qualified investors. But I can say one thing for certain: more money than ever wants to sit idle, and there are now several places for it to do so, each with a different interest rate.
$USDC $ETH $ONDO #央行数据 #居民存款 #代币化美债 #RWA #Stablecoin