BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s outstanding loans to small businesses stood at 13.7 trillion yuan ($1.98 trillion) by the end of July, up 27.5% from a year earlier, the central bank said on Thursday.
Interest rates on those loans averaged 5.27% in July, 0.91 percentage points lower than a year ago, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement handed out ahead of a news conference in Beijing.
Prudent monetary policy will be more flexible and appropriate, the PBOC said, while market rates would be guided towards the rates on the medium-term lending facility (MLF) and open market operation (OMO).
(Reporting by Ma Rong and Tony Munroe; Editing by Alison Williams)
