A view of People's Bank of China in Beijing. File photo: VCG

China's central bank announced the raise of 300 billion yuan ($46.4 billion) for loans in an effort to support the country's micro, small and medium firms, according to a statement from the People' s Bank of China on Thursday.

Loans will be issued to support qualified local corporate banks at preferential interest rates to increase loans available to small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households in the remaining four months of this year. 

The average loan interest rate is required to be around 5.5 percent to help small and micro enterprises funding at low costs.

The central bank also said that in recent years, loans specifically offered to small and micro enterprises have become a monetary policy tool to mobilize the enthusiasm of local corporate banks and stimulate the rapid growth of loans to small and micro enterprises. 

The financing of small and micro enterprises is showing a trend of "increasing volume, expanding coverage, and falling costs", and the convenience of corporate financing has been greatly improved realizing precise drip irrigation for the real economy, said the bank.

The new loans are considered as part of the central government's broader measures to keep market entities and employment stable and support economic growth.