The number of outstanding loans to small and micro enterprises in China rose to RMB 10.3 trillion ($1.50 trillion) at the end of May, up by 21% year on year, said Zou Lan, Deputy Head of the People’s Bank of China’s Financial Markets Department, reported Reuters.
The country’s top five lenders have boosted lending to small business by 23.7% during the five-month period, annual target is 30%.
The non-performing loan ratio for lending to small enterprises across industry was 5.9%, said Zou. Yi Gang, the central bank governor, said in March that the non-performing ratio of such loans was 6.2% in 2018.
The average lending rate to small and micro firms by China’s top five banks stood at 4.79% as of end-May industry-wide, down from 5.44% in 2018, according to Zou.
