Financial support for SMEs pledged

The country's small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be guaranteed financial support despite the government's tightened monetary policy this year, China's banking regulator pledged on Friday.

"Local lenders should stick to the tight monetary policy and control their overall loan volume.

"But the credit control should not hurt the loan demand of SMEs," Wang Zhaoxing, vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), told a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.