The balance of domestic and foreign currency loans in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, stood at 2.45 trillion yuan ($355.07 billion) at the end of June, an increase of 237.6 billion yuan over the beginning of this year, according to official data.

The figure represents a yearly uptick of 15.7 percent, the highest annual increase in the past 10 years and ranking fifth among 36 major cities nationwide.

In the first half of the year, the average interest rate of loans for businesses in the city was 4.74 percent, down 0.45 percentage point year-on-year and 0.14 percentage points lower than the provincial average. 

The average interest rate of loans to small and micro-sized businesses was 5.12 percent, a decline of 0.47 percentage points year-on-year.

In an effort to bail out the real economy, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic, the city's financial bodies have slashed about 5 billion yuan in fees, benefiting more than 100,000 enterprises over the six-month period.

Capital is also being provided to facilitate the transformation of enterprises and encourage them to make initial public offerings. 

From January to June, a total of five enterprises from Ningbo debuted on bourses in China and abroad, increasing the total number of listed companies in the city to 103, including 84 A-share listed company.

This puts the city at second place among municipalities with independent planning status, and eighth place among all cities in the nation. 

Meanwhile, Ningbo's direct financing scale over this period reached a value of 106.525 billion yuan, up 81.7 percent year-on-year.