China’s broadest measure of new credit fell by more than estimated in October, suggesting authorities are trying to keep shadow-finance risks in check as leaders map out a blueprint to sustain growth.

Aggregate financing was 856.4 billion yuan ($140.6 billion), the People’s Bank of China said Monday in Beijing, below all nine projections in a Bloomberg News survey. New local-currency loans of 506.1 billion yuan compared with the 580 billion yuan median estimate of analysts. M2, the broadest measure of money supply, rose 14.3 percent from a year earlier.

Slower credit would constrain growth while limiting risks of a financial crisis as China seeks a way to replace the debt-fueled investment and construction that have sustained expansion since the global financial crisis in 2008. President Xi Jinping and top Communist leaders Tuesday conclude a four-day gathering to set the direction of economic reforms.

“This confirms our view that monetary policy has tightened and growth will slow going forward,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. With GDP expansion on track to achieve the 2013 goal of 7.5 percent, new bank loans and aggregate financing will decline this quarter from the previous period’s “high levels,” Zhang said. (Bloomberg)