BEIJING -- China's new yuan-denominated lending in August rose to 703.9 billion yuan ($111.7 billion), an increase of 155.5 billion yuan from a year earlier, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, announced Tuesday.

Preliminary data showed that social financing, a measure of funds raised by entities in the real economy, totaled 1.24 trillion yuan in August, up 188.5 billion yuan from July and 166.6 billion yuan from the same period in 2011, said the PBOC.

From January to August, social financing amounted to 10.07 trillion yuan, up 691.5 billion yuan from the same period in 2011, said the bank.

New yuan-denominated loans in July declined sharply to 540.1 billion yuan, the lowest since September 2011. This compares to new loans of 919.8 billion yuan in June, which hit a three-month high after reaching 1.01 trillion yuan in March.

Tuesday's statement did not include other data such as M1 and M2, the narrow and broad measure of money supply.