Chinese banks provide more loans to private businesses

BEIJING - China has increased lending support for the private sector, according to its top banking and insurance regulator.

Outstanding loans to private enterprises by banking financial institutions stood at 58.2 trillion yuan ($8.64 trillion) at the end of June, up 11.4 percent from a year ago, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

New loans to private enterprises accounted for 53.5 percent of the total new corporate loans in the first six months, up 0.8 percentage points year-on-year.

The interest rate of new loans to private enterprises was 4.74 percent in the January-June period, down 0.57 percentage points year-on-year.