BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key business news from the past week:
NEW YUAN LOANS FOR REAL ECONOMY
Outstanding loans supporting real economic activities increased 10.8 trillion yuan (about 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months of this year, up around 780 billion yuan from the increase during the same period of 2018, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.
Inclusive loans to small and micro firms rose 26.5 percent in the period, while their overall financing costs dropped by more than one percentage point.
SERVICE TRADE
China's service trade totaled 3.09 trillion yuan (about 436 billion U.S. dollars) during the first seven months of 2019, up 3.2 percent year on year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
Export of services amounted to 1.1 trillion yuan, up 9.5 percent, while import came in at 1.99 trillion yuan. The service trade deficit stood at 887.1 billion yuan during the period, down 9.8 percent year on year.
RRR CUT
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced to cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for financial institutions by 50 basis points from Sept. 16 to support the real economy and reduce the real cost of social financing. About 800 billion yuan will be released from the broad-based RRR cut.
The PBOC also announced an additional 100 basis points reduction in the RRR for city commercial banks operating only in provincial administrative areas will be implemented. The targeted RRR cut will release 100 billion yuan, with aims to promote support for small and private enterprises.
