China SMEI: Banks increase credit support for SMEs – Standard Chartered

Lan Shen, economist at Standard Chartered, notes that the China’s February SMEI survey indicates improvement in SMEs’ business conditions in the near term.

Key Quotes

“The headline SMEI (Bloomberg: SCCNSMEI ) – based on our monthly survey of more than 500 SMEs nationwide – edged up to 55.1 in February from 54.9 in January.”

“This was driven largely by a sharp rebound in the ‘expectations’ sub-index to 62.0 from 54.5 in January, as strong policy support for SMEs likely helped restore market confidence and reduce uncertainty.”

“The ‘current performance’ sub-index was affected by the Lunar New Year holidays, sliding to 50.7 from 56.4 in January. It was also 4.2ppt lower than in February 2018, given fewer working days this February than last year.”