China to further cut financing interest rates for small, micro firms

BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government decided Wednesday to further reduce the real financing interest rates for small and micro firms.

China will stick to a prudent monetary policy which will be eased or tightened to the right degree, while maintaining reasonably sufficient liquidity to ensure that the loan's real interest rates for small and micro firms will be lowered, according to a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

The market quotation interest rate mechanism for commercial banks' loans will be improved, while medium, small and micro firms will enjoy more support in financing by bonds and other means.

Financial institutions should issue more bonds this year than 2018, striving to top 180 billion yuan (26.18 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019.

Some cities will be encouraged to conduct a three-year-long reform pilot in improving financial services for private, small and micro firms, according to the statement.

The government also aims to ease financing difficulty for private, small and micro firms by expanding intellectual property pledge financing.

More credit support will be channeled to the manufacturing and services sectors, with the former seeing higher outstanding total loans, medium-and long-term loans and credit loans this year than 2018.

In a bid to nurture more professionals, the State Council decided to expand the coverage of national scholarships and grants for vocational college students, raise the financial assistance level, and set up a national scholarship for secondary vocational education.