MNI BRIEF: China SME Loans Expanded During First Two Months

China’s balance of small and micro enterprise loans reached CNY33.9 trillion at the end of February, up 12.6% y/y, said Jiang Ping, director of the Inclusive Finance Department at the State Administration of Financial Supervision Administration, speaking with reporters on Wednesday.

The average interest rate for newly issued SME loans during the first two months was 4.03%, down 0.33 percentage points from 2024 and 3.9 pp lower than in 2018, Jiang noted. 

China is expected to increase financing support for property companies to prevent a fresh wave of defaults disrupting the ongoing recovery, advisors and analysts told MNI, as developers face mounting bond maturities this year. (See: MNI: China To Boost Developer Financing Support)