New index released shows improved China's inclusive finance services

Photo: China Inclusive Finance Blue Paper 2018 and the CCB·Xinhua Inclusive Finance-SME Index are released on October 11, 2018.

BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The CCB·Xinhua Inclusive Finance-SME Index was inaugurated in Beijing on October 11, which showed improved availability and quality of financial services for China's small- and micro-sized enterprises (SME) in the second quarter of 2018.

The CCB·Xinhua Inclusive Finance-SME Index is jointly compiled by the China Construction Bank (CCB) and China Economic Information Service (CEIS) under Xinhua News Agency, and it includes four sub-indices, which are financing index, service index, development index and business index.

It reflects the capability of Chinese financial system to provide convenient service at relatively reasonable prices for SMEs and depicts the running situation and development status of inclusive finance for SMEs, creating a "barometer" and "compass" for inclusive finance of SMEs.

The index indicated that China's financing price for SMEs has been stabilizing with fluctuations in the recent years. The trend went down in 2016 from relatively high levels in 2015, and showed an upward trend with corrections after the second quarter of 2017 to reach the peak at 107.63 in the fourth quarter. Since 2018, the financing price index for SMEs fell down from the last quarter of 2017.

In the second quarter of 2018, the development index and the business index for SMEs stayed at 55.41 and 54.80, respectively, both higher than the critical threshold of 50 and indicating the booming situation in the two fields.

Liu Zhengrong, vice president and secretary general of Xinhua News Agency, said Xinhua will continue to report China’s policies and measures for developing inclusive finance and local experience and achievements in practice all over the country. Xinhua will also integrate all of its media resources and specialized think-tank teams, such as the national financial information platform Xinhua Finance and national credit information platform Xinhua Credit, to provide services for financial institutions like CCB and contribute to China’s inclusive finance development.

Tian Guoli, chairman of CCB said that in the area of inclusive finance, there are still many theoretical and practical problems to be solved, and the CCB·Xinhua Inclusive Finance-SME Index gives full play to the strength of all sectors of society, such as banks and professional media, to create a barometer of the inclusive financial performance of China, and provide decision-making support for the innovation of inclusive financial products, models and mechanisms.

(Edited by Yang Qi, kateqiyang@xinhua.org)