The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced on July 1 that it has granted an additional CNY 12 billion in rediscount quotas to some of its branch offices in its latest move to increase credit support for the development of small and micro enterprises as well as agricultural issues.

The PBOC has granted a combined CNY 16.5 billion in rediscount quotas since the beginning of this year, bringing the total amount to CNY 162 billion. Data shows that 45 percent of the total has been assigned to discount notes issued by small and micro enterprises, with 27 percent used for discounting agricultural-related notes.

The PBOC has called for providing more loans targeting small and micro enterprises as well as the development of agricultural issues, with stricter controls to be imposed on the rediscount business. The central bank has also promised to provide liquidity to eligible financial institutions confronting fund shortage problems through discounts, prioritize the granting of discount quotas to targeted notes, and increase the operation efficiency of rediscount businesses.