Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of other BRICS member countries who are in Kazan, Russia attending the 16th BRICS Summit posed for a group photo on Wednesday.
The first-ever summit of an expanded BRICS is taking place from Tuesday to Thursday in Kazan, the capital city of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan. Xi flew in on Tuesday to attend the event at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
BRICS began with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and has now evolved into an influential international cooperation mechanism with an expanded membership.
Besides the countries that officially joined the BRICS family on Jan 1, 2024, over 30 countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Türkiye and Azerbaijan have either formally applied for or expressed interest in membership.
Leaders of BRICS member countries pose for group photo
Leaders of BRICS member countries pose for group photo
China's outstanding aggregate social financing -- the total amount of financing to the real economy -- reached 442.12 trillion yuan (about 63.4 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2025, up 8.3 percent year on year, central bank data showed on Thursday.
The country's aggregate social financing stood at 35.6 trillion yuan (about 5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up by 3.34 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) from the year 2024, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.
According to the data, the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.5 percent year on year to 340.29 trillion yuan (about 48.8 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December.
In addition, outstanding yuan loans stood at 271.91 trillion yuan (about 39 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2025, up 6.4 percent year on year.
China's aggregate social financing maintains high growth in 2025
