China has unveiled measures to strengthen supervision of government-controlled finance guarantee institutions in the latest move to provide better financial services for small firms and the agricultural sector.
Financial departments and regulatory authorities at the provincial level should coordinate to introduce lists of government-controlled financing guarantee institutions, according to a circular jointly released by seven central government departments, including the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).
Such institutions are asked to expand the proportion of financing guarantee funds for small and micro-businesses as well as agricultural and rural entities, the circular said.
The circular also called for better monitoring of government-controlled financing guarantee institutions to guide them to further enlarge the scale of services and lower costs in support of small businesses and the agricultural sector.
New yuan loans
China’s new yuan-denominated loans hit 992.7 billion yuan (US$142.4 billion) in July, down 63.1 billion yuan compared with the same month of last year, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC).
Loans in the household sector and the corporate sector last month increased by 757.8 billion yuan and 264.5 billion yuan respectively, with medium and long-term loans accounting for the majority, the central bank said.
The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 10.7% year on year to 212.55 trillion yuan at the end of July.
The growth rate was 0.4 percentage points lower than at the end of June, but up 2.6 percentage points compared with the same period last year.
US companies
United States companies are not leaving the Chinese market despite an unprecedented downturn in US-China relations during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an annual member survey released Tuesday by the US-China Business Council (USCBC).
“Both our data as well as conversations with member companies indicate that American companies remain committed to the China market over the long term,” said the survey.
The USCBC is a trade group representing more than 200 US companies that do business with China.
Market liquidity
PBoC pumped cash into the banking system via reverse repos to maintain liquidity on Wednesday.
The central bank injected 140 billion yuan into the market through seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 2.2%, according to a statement on the website of the central bank.
The move was intended to maintain reasonable and ample liquidity in the banking system, the PBoC said.
New-energy vehicles
Sales of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) in China posted robust growth in July as the world’s largest auto market steadily expanded its recovery, industry data showed.
A total of 98,000 NEVs were sold last month, up 19.3% year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
In the first seven months, 486,000 NEVs were sold, down 32.8% year-on-year.
CAAM data also showed that China’s auto market maintained recovery momentum last month, as increasing demand and strengthening incentives have pushed positive market growth.
Total output reached 2.2 million in July, up 21.9% year on year, while sales hit 2.1 million, up 16.4% year on year.
The stories were written by Xu Jiangshan and first published at ATimesCN.com. They were translated by Nadeem Xu.