The number of billionaires in China has overtaken that of the United States for the first time, an annual survey said Thursday, calling it a "turning point" for the super-wealthy.

Communist-ruled China now has 596 billionaires, up a "staggering" 242 over the last year, Shanghai-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report said, surpassing the 537 Americans.

"The world used to look to American entrepreneurs... for inspiration. This year, 2015, is a turning point," Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf told AFP.

"This is the first year we've seen they've been eclipsed. They are being overtaken by Chinese, and not just a little bit."

The number of Chinese billionaires would increase to 715 if those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were included, the survey said.

"In 2015, the entrepreneurs are Chinese, they are not American. We have American ones, but the king is Chinese," Hoogewerf said.

Real estate and entertainment magnate Wang Jianlin dethroned founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Jack Ma as the country's richest person, Hurun's annual wealth ranking showed.

Wang, who founded conglomerate Wanda, saw his fortune jump more than 50 percent to $34.4 billion, helped by a surge in the stock price of a listed unit.

Wang is known outside China for a string of overseas acquisitions including the organiser of Ironman extreme endurance contests, Swiss sports marketing group Infront, and a stake in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid.

He burst into the spotlight in 2012 by buying US cinema chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion.

Wang took the top spot back from Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba, because of a collapse in the Internet company's New York-quoted shares, which were the world's biggest initial public offering when it listed last year. Ma's wealth still stands at $22.7 billion.

Beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou of Wahaha remained in third place with just over $21 billion while Pony Ma, founder of Internet giant Tencent which operates popular messaging app WeChat, took fourth place with a little under $19 billion.

Lei Jun of smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is seeking to challenge Apple, jumped five places to fifth by doubling his wealth to more than $14 billion.

Yan Hao of road builder China Pacific Construction was sixth while the founder of search engine giant Baidu, Robin Li, dropped to seventh amid worries over his company's huge spending to expand its business.

"Despite the slowdown in the economy, China's richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever," Hoogewerf said in a statement.

China bank lending up in September
Beijing (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 - China's bank lending increased in September from a month ago, the central bank said Thursday, after authorities stepped up efforts to boost slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.

Chinese lenders extended 1.05 trillion yuan ($165.4 billion) in new loans last month, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) said in a statement, up from 809.6 billion yuan in August.

Total social financing -- an alternative measure of credit in the real economy -- reached 1.30 trillion yuan in September, it said separately, higher than 1.08 trillion yuan in August and exceeding the median estimate of 1.2 trillion yuan in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

"Credit data beat market expectations," Nomura economists said in a research note.

The figures "offer tentative signs that growth momentum may have stabilised, but at a relatively weak level in September, possibly helped by the significant monetary policy easing rolled out so far", they said.

China is a key driver of global growth but concerns over its prospects have roiled world markets in recent months. The economy expanded 7.3 percent last year, the lowest since 1990, and expansion weakened to 7.0 percent in each of the first two quarters this year.

The central bank in late August cut interest rates for the fifth time since November and last month again slashed bank reserve ratios.

It has continued to inject liquidity into the market through unconventional operations, such as expanding a programme last week that allows banks to borrow using loans they themselves have made as collateral.

"The amount of aggregate social financing is expected to increase in Q4 on the back of PBoC's direct monetary policy easing and unconventional liquidity injection," ANZ analysts said in a report.

They expected bank reserve ratios to be further reduced by 50 basis points in the final three months this year.

China's foreign exchange reserves -- the biggest in the world -- stood at $3.51 trillion at the end of September, down from $3.56 trillion a month ago, according to the central bank.

September marked the fifth consecutive month reserves fell.

In August, it slumped by a record $93.9 billion as Beijing sold dollars to support its own currency following jitters over a sudden devaluation.