China's efforts to rein in inflation and staunch the flow of credit in the country took a blow on Thursday when data showed a bigger than expected rise in new loans last month.

The nation's banks lent 679.4 billion yuan ($104.5 billion) in March, up from 535.6 billion yuan in February, despite several interest rate hikes and increases in the amount of money banks must hold in reserve.

The figure came in above the median forecast of 585 billion yuan by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.

It was also 172.7 billion yuan more than the same month a year earlier, the People's Bank of China said in a statement.

The broadest measure of money supply, M2, rose 16.6 percent at the end of March on year, picking up from an increase of 15.7 percent at the end of February.

China's already world-beating foreign exchange reserves totalled $3.0447 trillion at the end of March, up 24.4 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said.

National financing, a boarder measure of total credit to the economy, covering loans from trust companies and the issuance of securities, totalled 4.19 trillion yuan in the first quarter, the central bank said.

The new indicator, released for the first time on Thursday, stood at 14.27 trillion yuan for 2010.

Beijing has introduced a number of measures since the start of last year to bring consumer costs under control but inflation remained stubbornly high at 4.9 percent in February -- above Beijing's 2011 target of four percent.

The annual rate of inflation for March, which is scheduled to be released on Friday, is expected to reach 5.5 percent and climb in coming months, Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong-based economist with Mizuho Securities said.

The State Council, or cabinet, on Wednesday renewed a government pledge to "do everything possible to maintain price stability", calling it the top priority for macroeconomic regulation and control this year.