Chinese financial institutions' loan balance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) climbed 28 percent from the beginning of the year to 14.1 trillion yuan (US$2.06 trillion) by the end of September, the central bank said Friday.

Non-performing loan balance to China's SMEs stood at 534.1 billion yuan by September, down 71.6 billion yuan from the beginning of this year, according to statistics released jointly by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, and China Banking Regulatory Commission Friday.

The non-performing loan rate was 4.05 percent by September, down 1.83 percentage points from the beginning of this year, the PBOC said in a statement on its official website.

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2009)