The composite index of leading indicators, a strong guide to coming economic performance, continues "to point to divergence between economies" worldwide, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

"The assessment for China and India has changed significantly since last month," the OECD said, with the indicators pointing towards activity below long-term trend.

Meanwhile indicators for Japan, Russia and the United States still show an improvement, although with "tentative signs that growth may moderate in the near term," the OECD said.

In the eurozone, while indicators for France and Italy continue to point to sluggish activity, Germany and the currency bloc as a whole were only slightly below long-term trend.

The OECD, which groups the world's most developed countries, said Brazilian data pointed towards a turning point, with economic activity improving to nearer long-term trend but with a weaker intensity.

Banks issued 793.2 billion yuan ($125 billion) in new loans in May, up from 681.8 billion yuan in April, the nation's central bank said in a statement.

The latest figure beat market expectations of 750 billion yuan, according to a poll of economists by Dow Jones Newswires.

"The figure is higher than expected," Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura Securities in Hong Kong, told AFP.

"This is good news, indicating that China's policy easing is in progress and is coming in at a slightly faster than expected pace."

On a year-on-year basis, new loans increased by 241.6 billion yuan in May from the same month last year, the People's Bank of China said.

The increase in new lending came as the central bank cut banks' reserve requirements -- the proportion of funds banks must place in reserve -- last month for the third time since December last year.

Analysts said the May reserve requirement cut would help pump an additional 400 billion yuan of liquidity into the economy.

China last week also cut interest rates for the first time in more than three years, amid worries over the deteriorating economy.

China's economy grew 8.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012 -- its slowest pace in nearly three years.

The government has reduced its economic growth target for this year to just 7.5 percent, down from actual growth of 9.2 percent last year and 10.4 percent in 2010.