BEIJING — China’s policies since 2018 to tackle corporate financing difficulties and prompt the financial sector to better serve the real economy have taken effect, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Aug 21.

“Generally speaking, these policies have been implemented in an orderly manner and taken effect gradually,” Zhu Hexin, deputy governor of the PBOC, told a press briefing.

Zhu said the banking liquidity is reasonable and abundant with fast growth in loans.

China’s new yuan-denominated loans stood at 10.48 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion) in the first seven months, up 1.69 trillion yuan year-on-year, central bank data showed.

The credit structure continued to be optimized with stronger credit support for sectors including high-tech manufacturing, the service sector and poverty relief, said Zhu.

The deputy governor stressed that China’s deleveraging efforts have made very good progress and the central bank will stand firm on structural deleveraging.

He said China will continue to ease financing strain on small and micro businesses to support the sustainable development of the real economy.

As for the recent fluctuations of the yuan exchange rate, Li Bo, a senior official of the central bank, said at the press briefing that the yuan exchange rate is mainly decided by market supply and demand and its flexibility has improved notably since last year.

“China will let the market play a bigger and more decisive role in exchange rate formation, refrain from competitive currency devaluation and using yuan exchange rate as a tool to cope with trade disputes,” said Li, adding that China’s stable and positive economic fundamentals will give strong support for the yuan.