China c.bank vice governor says more policy support needed amid pandemic

China's central bank vice governor said on Tuesday the economic hit from the novel coronavirus was bigger than first expected and that more monetary and credit policy support was needed. China still has space for normal monetary policy to support the economy, Pan Gongsheng told a news conference in Beijing.

He also said new tools to boost bank lending to small firms were a short-term policy arrangement and not a form of quantitative easing. The People's Bank of China said on Monday it would start buying bank loans made by local lenders to small firms this week to try to prod banks to lend as much as 1 trillion yuan ($140.44 billion) to small businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic.