Coronavirus: China offers under pressure small, medium-sized businesses lifeline by delaying loan payments
- Banks have been told to grant extensions until the end of June for eligible businesses with repayments or interest due between January 25 and June 30
- China’s central bank has already made 500 billion yuan (US$51.5 billion) of additional funds available for commercial lenders to lend to firms
China will offer temporary relief to small and medium-sized businesses under pressure from the coronavirus outbreak by allowing firms to delay loan or interest payments until the end of June, with many in danger of bankruptcy.
Banks across China have been told to grant the extensions to eligible small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as micro and self-employed businesses, who have payments or interest due between January 25 and June 30.
The move, announced on Sunday by the People’s Bank of China, the finance ministry, the National Development and Reform Commission, the China Banking Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIBRC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is the latest effort to offer “targeted” help to private firms hit hardest by the coronavirus.
According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, only 30 per cent of SMEs had resumed work by mid-February, compared to over 90 per cent of state-owned enterprises.