China micro-credit firms' outstanding loans at 928.8b yuan
EU approves Greece's repayment of IMF loans
Outstanding loans extended by China's micro-credit companies amounted to 928.8 billion yuan ($131.4 billion) by the end of September, data from the central bank showed.
The volume was down 25.7 billion yuan in the first three quarters, according to the People's Bank of China.
By the end of September, the number of micro-credit companies in China came in at 7,680. Micro-lenders largely target small companies and lowincome groups in need of capital. In recent years, micro-lending companies have become an important channel for mediumand small-sized firms as well as individuals to access funds.
The central bank report showed East China's Jiangsu province had 565 small-credit companies by the end of September, the most of any provincial-level region, followed by Liaoning province and Guangdong province.
Meanwhile, China
will encourage overseas investors to participate in the Nasdaq-style sci-tech innovation board, commonly known as the STAR market, according to an official with the country's forex regulator. The opening-up of the country's capital account and the development of the foreign exchange market will be promoted in a steady and orderly manner, Lu Lei, deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said at a forum held on the weekend.
The country will continue to enrich forex trading, support the development of the STAR market, and encourage overseas participation in the board, he added. "Our stance is to promote higher-standard opening up on the basis of risk prevention and control," Lu said when referring to the country's forex management reforms.
The target of prudent macro management is to maintain basic stability of the forex market and prevent systemic risks incurred by large-scale, unstable cross-border capital movement, he said.
The country will also step up regulations for the forex market and maintain order to protect the legitimate rights of consumers and investors, he said. In the first nine months of this year, China's forex market turnover totaled 153.82 trillion yuan (about $21.9 trillion), SAFE data showed. In September alone, the forex market reported a turnover of 15.01 trillion yuan.
Moreover, China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), also known as the "new third board", has raised 491.139 billion yuan ($69.35 billion) since its establishment in 2013.
A total of 6,388 firms listed on the board made 10,516 stocks issuances by the end of September, data from the NEEQ showed. A number of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as private enterprises, were financed via the new third board, according to the NEEQ. A total of 1,498 companies listed on the board received financing when operated on losses.
The euro zone's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, agreed on Monday to allow Greece to pay back earlier some of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, the ESM said in a statement.
The move, which concerns loans worth around 2.7 billion euros ($3.0 billion), allows Athens to reduce its debt-servicing costs, because IMF loans carry higher interest than Greece would now pay on the market. The decision followed a Greek government request to the ESM in September to repay some of its loans to the IMF, which were worth about 9 billion euros.
"Greece's early partial repayment to the IMF will be beneficial for both Greece and the ESM," said the fund's chief, Klaus Regling. Greece, cut off from the markets during the sovereign debt crisis of 20102015, borrowed heavily from the IMF and euro zone governments. Under the loan agreements Greece has negotiated with its euro zone lenders, the early repayment of 2.7b euros of debt to the IMF would have triggered proportional payment of 52.2b euros to the ESM.