Data released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics on Friday showed that China’s GDP growth slowed to 6.5 percent in the third quarter, the lowest since early 2009. China’s growth faces increasing pressure from the US-China trade war, Beijing’s financial deleveraging and property curbs, the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes and a weakening yuan that is prompting capital outflows.

The People’s Bank of China has lowered its reserve requirement ratio four times to encourage lending and has urged banks to increase lending to cash-starved small companies, but Chinese media have reported that banks’ loan requirements for small firms and private companies remain stringent, and further reserve requirement reduction is expected.