BEIJING, Sept. 29 -- The balance of China's inclusive loans to small and micro businesses stood at 27.8 trillion yuan (about 3.87 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of August, the country's central bank said.

According to the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the loan growth rate has remained above 20 percent for three consecutive years.

The loans had supported 60.25 million small businesses by the end of August, the PBOC said.

In August, the weighted average interest rate of new loans to small and micro businesses stood at 4.48 percent, 1.7 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2018.

The quality of inclusive finance is an important symbol of the quality of financial development, said Liu Guoqiang, deputy governor of the bank, urging efforts to step up financial support to small and micro private enterprises, consolidate the foundation of financial services related to agriculture, expand coverage of inclusive finance and protect consumers' rights and interests.