BEIJING, April 14 (Reuters) - China's outstanding total social financing was 162.82 trillion yuan ($23.65 trillion) at the end of March, up 12.5 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said on Friday.

Total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, had dropped to 1.15 trillion yuan in February from a record 3.74 trillion yuan in January.

TSF includes off-balance sheet forms of financing that exist outside the conventional bank lending system, such as initial public offerings, loans from trust companies and bond sales. It can also hint at trends in China's vast shadow banking sector. China's foreign exchange deposits were at $772.2 billion at the end of March, compared with $752.6 billion a month earlier, the central bank added. ($1 = 6.8850 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Sam Holmes)