China's private business hub Zhejiang Province has planned to issue 71 billion yuan (10.1 billion U.S. dollars) of loans for epidemic prevention and control and for companies to resume work, local authorities said Wednesday.
The province will issue more loans at a faster pace from January to February compared with the same period last year, and lower the threshold for granting credit to key enterprises that are resuming work, said Sheng Yijun, deputy head of the local bureau of financial supervision.
So far, 28.7 billion yuan of the loans has been granted, Sheng said.
In the face of the epidemic, the province has encouraged financial institutions to waive the interest for entity enterprises to cut financing costs. It has also cut or waived financial service costs and lowered the interest rate for companies affected by the epidemic.
Zhejiang is home to some of China's most successful private businesses, which accounted for 65.5 percent of the province's economy and 78 percent of its foreign trade in 2018.
