China's State Council made a series of arrangements Friday on lowering real interest rates through market-based reform measures and easing financing difficulties.
According to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, China's overall financing interest rates have been stable with slight declines so far this year.
To keep this momentum, it is necessary to maintain a reasonably sufficient money supply and stick to reform to lead to a marked drop in real interest rates, the meeting noted.
The reform measures listed at the meeting include improving the interest rate formation mechanism in the credit market, enhancing the transparency of credit rates and fees, coordinating the use of different kinds of monetary policy tools and having financing guarantee play a bigger role in reducing the financing costs of the real economy.
The target of cutting the financing costs of small and micro enterprises by 1 percentage point must be realized, said the meeting.
Creditworthy companies with orders and bright market prospects will receive more credit support, and no arbitrary termination of loans are allowed, it said.
To ease the financing difficulties of small and micro firms, the State Council called for the use of positive incentives and proper supervision and assessment to coach banks to expand business, streamline business procedures and better support the real economy.
