New loans extended by banks operating in Taiwan to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) for the first 10 months of this year surpassed a government target for the whole of this year, a top financial regulator said on Saturday.
According to the Financial Supervisory Commission, new bank loans to SMEs during the 10 month period totaled NT$252.8 billion (US$8.5 billion), surpassing a goal set by the government, which had hoped banks would lend NT$240 billion for the whole of the year.
While the pace of economic recovery remained slow, the willingness of SMEs to invest appeared strong, market analysts said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said the nation has about 1.28 million SMEs, which represent more than 97 percent of the country’s businesses. Roughly 56 percent of them are owned by individual proprietors.
According to the ministry’s Small and Medium Enterprises Administration, SMEs in the manufacturing, construction and mining sectors are those with paid-in capital of less than NT$80 million.
SMEs outside those three sectors are defined as incorporated entities that generate less than NT$100 million in sales each year.
The commission said that as of the end of October, outstanding loans extended by banks registered in Taiwan to local SMEs totaled NT$4.7 trillion, up NT$36.8 billion from the end of September.
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