BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's financial institutions' loan to small and micro businesses reached 1.07 trillion yuan (159 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of December, up 15.7 percent year on year, according to China's central bank.

That indicates an accelerating growth rate over the past three months, as the municipality works to boost the private businesses.

Beijing saw its loan to small and micro businesses increase by 148.6 billion yuan last year, according to the Operation Office of the People's Bank of China.

The December statistics showed the loans to the high-tech sector and creative industry saw a relatively rapid growth, with 16.9 percent and 19.3 percent growth rate year on year respectively.

Growth rate of loans to the real estate sector is 5.9 percent, or 7.6 percentage points lower than in 2017, according to the data.