Outstanding loans from both domestic and foreign-invested banks to the nation's small and micro-sized companies stood at 13.7 trillion yuan (2.22 trillion US dollars) as of the end of March, new data showed on Friday.

The value represented an increase of 16.3 percent year on year, with the growth rate picking up by 2.1 percentage points compared to the growth level at the end of last year, according to data released by the People's Bank of China, China's central bank.

In the first quarter, new yuan-denominated loans to small and micro-sized firms totaled 560.9 billion yuan, accounting for 30.5 percent of banks' total new loans to companies, the data showed.