BEIJING — China's manufacturing sector saw a surge in new loans in the first five months of this year as the country strengthened financial support amid the COVID-19 epidemic, official data showed.

From January to May, a total of 1.4 trillion yuan (about $197 billion) worth of new loans has flowed to Chinese manufacturers, up 10.1 percent year-on-year, which is the highest growth since 2014, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).

The commission has asked banking and insurance institutions to deepen efforts to facilitate the upgrade of the manufacturing sector and help stabilize industrial and supply chains amid the epidemic, said Ye Yanfei, an official with the CBIRC.

In the first five months of the year, new loans to the manufacturing sector accounted for 11.3 percent of the total new loans, 6.7 percentage points higher than the level at the beginning of the year.

By the end of the first quarter, the non-performing loan ratio for the manufacturing sector stood at 4.5 percent, flat from the level at the beginning of the year.

Ye added that appropriate arrangements, such as deferring loan repayments, aimed to help small businesses pull through the epidemic have paid off.

By the end of May, outstanding inclusive loans to small and micro businesses issued by the banking sector amounted to 13.08 trillion yuan, up 27.56 percent year-on-year.