China's central bank urges steady credit growth

China's central bank has urged major financial institutions to spearhead the effort in maintaining stable credit growth, it said in a statement on Monday.

In a meeting chaired by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang, the PBOC called on financial institutions, especially state-owned banks, to play a "leading and backbone role" in maintaining the stability of total loan growth, according to the statement released after the meeting.

The central bank also called on major financial institutions to increase loan issuance to the real economy and make great efforts to improve credit support for small- and micro-sized enterprises, green development and technological innovation.

"China's economy continues to recover and develop, but still with slight fluctuations," the PBOC said in the statement. "We must consolidate the foundation of economic recovery and development with a sense of urgency."

Against a backdrop of cooling property sales, the PBOC called for protecting the reasonable financing needs of the real estate sector.

PBOC told financial institutions to increase financial support to key areas of the platform economy.

Major bank representatives attended the meeting, including those from China Development Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of China.

On the same day, the PBOC cut both the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) and over-five-year LPR in a bid to shore up growth.

(CGTN)