China ramps up efforts to help small businesses tide over tough time

China rolled out a raft of measures on March 1 to provisionally defer loan payments for small businesses to tide them over the difficulties amid the epidemic, according to the country's top banking and insurance regulator.

For virus-striken micro-, small- and medium-sized companies, financial institutions shall defer their loan principal repayments that have matured since Jan 25, said a document released by five central departments including the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).

Meanwhile, their interest payments between Jan 25 and June 30 can be deferred to June 30, with penalty interest payments exempted, the document said.

Apart from enjoying the deferment policy, enterprises in the hardest-hit Hubei province shall be given special credit quota, so as to lower the comprehensive financing cost in 2020 by over 1 percentage point from last year for inclusive small and micro enterprises.

The CBIRC also stressed to bolster eligible companies with temporary liquidity difficulty in the epidemic, forbid one-size-fits-all practices and promote information sharing in offering credit support.