(Bloomberg) -- China's financial watchdog ordered the nation's banks and insurance companies to increase support for infrastructure development as economic growth slows and concerns rise about the trade standoff with the U.S.
Credit support should be boosted for infrastructure projects that have sound operations and an adequate capital base on condition local governments' implicit debts don't increase, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement late Saturday.
Fixed-asset investment in the world's largest developing economy rose by the least in two decades in the first seven months of 2018, while growth in infrastructure spending slowed to a quarter of the pace of a year earlier.
The regulator told banks and insurers to further "unclog" the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, and to give more support to small-and-micro-sized businesses, agriculture and export-oriented companies, according to the statement.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net
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