China’s foreign exchange holdings rose 18.7% year-on-year to US$2.85 trillion by the end of 2010, while bank lending exceeded government targets, Bloomberg reported. While the increase in foreign exchange holdings came in above market expectations, bank lending had been widely expected to exceed Beijing’s annual target of US$1.1 trillion (RMB7.5 trillion). Banks lent out a total of US$1.2 trillion (RMB7.9 trillion) over the full year. The broad M2 measure of money supply rose 19.7% year-on-year. New data also showed that China’s trade surplus shrank to US$13.1 billion in December from US$22.9 billion in November. Exports rose 17.9% year-on-year in December, down from a 34.9% gain in November, while imports rose 25.6%, slower than November’s 37.7%. For the full year, China’s exports grew 32.3%, while imports were up 41.6%. The country’s trade surplus in 2010 was US$184.6 billion, down from US$198.2 billion in 2009.