Outstanding loans to small businesses near 60 trillion yuan

File photo shows a staff member of a Chinese bank counting cash. (Xinhua/Zhang Chunlei)

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Outstanding loans by Chinese banks to small and micro businesses stood at 59.7 trillion yuan (8.76 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2022, data from the country's top banking regulator showed Wednesday.

Non-performing loans of commercial banks amounted to 3 trillion yuan at the end of December, down 8.3 billion yuan from the previous quarter, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

The non-performing loan ratio of commercial banks was 1.63 percent at the end of December, down 0.02 percentage points from the end of September.

Total assets of Chinese banking institutions in local and foreign currencies amounted to 379.4 trillion yuan at the end of last year, up 10 percent year on year.