URUMQI -- Financial institutions in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have provided 201.2 billion yuan (about $29.5 billion) of loans to 26,000 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises by August this year, to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

Outstanding loans to Xinjiang's small and micro businesses reached 417.8 billion yuan as of August, up 30.6 percent year-on-year, according to the Urumqi central sub-branch of the People's Bank of China.

To ease the pressure of repaying loans for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, 100 local financial institutions had postponed principal repayment of about 2.4 billion yuan for more than 1,800 market entities as of Sept 11.

Xinjiang has introduced 18 measures to support the development of small and micro enterprises this year to create a favorable business environment in the region.