China Floods Credit Into Industrial and Infrastructure Sectors

China slashed interest rates and flooded the economy with new credit for industrial enterprises and infrastructure projects as policymakers torqued up support for the real economy amid the worst Covid outbreak in two years. First-quarter lending to the property sector, however, continued weak.

Outstanding mid- to long-term loans to industrial enterprises surged 20.7% from a year ago to 14.39 trillion yuan ($2.16 trillion) at the end of March, the biggest expansion among all sectors, according to a report Friday by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on more than 8 trillion yuan of new renminbi loans in the first quarter.