Private lending rates in Wenzhou, a city known for private entrepreneurship and gray-market lending, has fallen by three percentage points to around 22 percent from a year earlier, according to a newly-introduced interest rate monitoring mechanism.

The Wenzhou branch of the central bank announced on Wednesday its first monitoring rate for private lending in the city. This is part of the pilot project to legalize private lending in Wenzhou adopted by the State Council in March.

The average private lending rate in Wenzhou is 21.58 percent, down 3.02 percentage points year-on-year and 0.8 points month-on-month, according to Xinhua News Agency, citing an announcement by the local central bank branch.

The branch has conducted a regular survey of private lending rates since 2003. Such surveys include data from 140 collection points, including 30 rural credit agencies, 28 micro-lending companies, 30 credit guarantee companies and 50 pawnbrokers and social lending agents, Xinhua reported.

Lending rates in Wenzhou are widely regarded as indicative of the availability of funding nationwide and the interplay between the demand and supply sides.

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn