The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said Sunday that it would beef up support to the agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that had financing difficulties.

A statement on the PBOC website said the monetary policy committee agreed at its first-quarter meeting to endeavor to improve the loans structure and tightly control loans targeted at high energy-consuming, high polluting industries and those with excessive production capacity.

The central bank said it would continue the relatively easy monetary policy to guarantee enough new loans to support domestic economic development.

Credit extended by China's banks in the first quarter hit 4.58 trillion yuan (670 billion U.S. dollars), PBOC figures revealed Saturday. In March alone, new yuan-denominated loans increased 1.89 trillion yuan, the third straight month that new loans had exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

"China will continue financial reforms and innovation, step up risk control and improve financial institutions' risk-proofing capabilities," said the statement.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2009)