BEIJING, March 6  -- Outstanding loans extended to small businesses in China rose by 3.08 trillion yuan (500 billion U.S. dollars) from the start of 2014 to hit 20.7 trillion yuan by the end of the year, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said on Friday.

The loans to small businesses accounted for 23.85 percent of the country's total loans, according to the statement, which added that the growth rate of such loans exceeded the average rate of all loans nationwide by 4.2 percentage points.

The loans were shared among 11.446 million small firms, up 9 percent from the same period in 2013.

As the Chinese government has accepted that the economy has settled into a period featuring a moderate economic growth rate, banking regulators vowed to further increase loans to small firms in 2015 in support of the country's drive at restructuring its economy.

In 2015, the growth rate of such loans should not be lower than the average rate of all loans nationwide, the number of borrowers should grow and the ratification rate should be no less than last year, according to the statement.

The commission urged commercial banks to incentivize their staff to give loans to small firms.

The world's second-largest economy finished 2014 with a 7.4-percent GDPgrowth rate, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years. Its growth target this year was further lowered to 7 percent.

Nearly 80 percent of urban jobs are provided by small companies, according to a February report by the State Administration of Taxation (SAT).

In order to boost economic growth and employment, China has expanded preferential tax policies for small companies and reduced their tax burden.

Tax breaks for small businesses in China amounted to 61.2 billion yuan in 2014, the SAT revealed.

The Finance Ministry and the SAT announced last April that any company with annual taxable income less than 100,000 yuan will have its business income tax halved between the start of 2014 and the end of 2016.

Industrial enterprises with no more than 30 million yuan in assets and no more than 100 employees will have their business tax halved for their taxable income between 100,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, according to the SAT.

By the end of 2013, there were about 11.7 million small companies in China, accounting for 76.6 percent of the total number of firms in the country, according to data released by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in May last year.

Taking small family businesses into account, small companies took up 94.2 percent of the total number and provided about 150 million jobs.