Lending to small firms encouraged

The government has introduced new incentives to encourage more lenders to provide microcredit loans to labor-intensive small firms and laid-off workers starting new businesses.

In a joint statement, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said microcredit lenders are allowed to raise the lending rate by up to 3 percentage points more than the benchmark rate for loans granted since January 1 to laid-off workers starting new businesses.

The measures are part of the central government's efforts to provide additional capital to encourage the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and create more jobs.