According to vice governor at PBOC, Chen Yulu, China is planning additional financial reforms at the regional level with a focus on small businesses. As the economy continues to slow down over the ongoing trade tensions with the US, the central bank would consider ways to encourage banks to lend more to corporate businesses.

Increased lending would offer much needed support for these firms to grow their business and hire more staff, boosting economic growth. There are already some such schemes running and the central bank could explore more such ways to reduce financing costs for SMBs.

According to Chen, “We should summarise good experiences and practices in the pilot areas, and accelerate the expansion of replicable experiences to a wider scope. At the same time, we should pay more attention to preventing and defusing regional financial risks.”