China's central bank cuts relending rates for agriculture, small firms

BEIJING -- China's central bank on Tuesday announced that it has decided to lower relending rates for the agriculture sector and small enterprises by 0.25 percentage points starting from Dec 7.

After the reduction, the interest rates of three-month, six-month, and one-year reloans supporting the development of agriculture and small firms stood at 1.7 percent, 1.9 percent and 2 percent, respectively, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in an online statement.

The interest rates for rediscounts and financial stability-related reloans remained unchanged at 2 percent and 1.75 percent, respectively, the PBOC statement shows.

At the end of September, China's outstanding relending to support rural development came in at 474.7 billion yuan (about $74.48 billion), and outstanding relending to support small enterprises was at 993.7 billion yuan, while outstanding rediscounts stood at 584.2 billion yuan, PBOC data shows.

The PBOC will maintain stable relending and rediscount policies and continue to provide inclusive and constant financial support for agriculture, small and micro enterprises, as well as private firms, the central bank said in its latest quarterly report on monetary policy implementation.