China's policy support for small enterprises sees results: official

BEIJING - China's supportive financial policies for small and micro enterprises have shown positive results, the country's central bank governor said Thursday.

Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), made the remark at the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2019 in Beijing.

By April, the loan balance of inclusive small and micro firms rose 20 percent year-on-year to about 10 trillion yuan ($1.14 trillion), channeling financial support to over 23 million small and micro enterprises, Yi introduced.

To better serve the need for economic transformation and high-quality development, one of the key tasks now is to improve credit support and direct financing for small and micro firms, Yi said.

China will apply a relatively low required reserve ratio (RRR) for some small and medium-sized banks starting from May 15. About 1,000 county-level rural commercial banks will enjoy a favorable RRR of 8 percent, unleashing long-term capital of about 300 billion yuan, Yi said.

According to Yi, the PBOC will step efforts to guarantee a 30 percent rise in the loan balance of inclusive small and micro firms, while reducing the firms' comprehensive financing cost of credit by 1 percent.