The trend for government-backed loans continued to rise in April, with a total of 1,834 approved loans amounting to $1.06 billion.

The total loan value since the first tranche of enhancements took effect in December last year now stands at $2.5 billion, exceeding the total loan value over the last two years; $1.03 billion in 2008 and $682 million in 2007.

Close to 70% of the loans have gone to the smaller businesses with less than $5 million in annual sales turnover. To date, more than 90% of the loans have been given to small and medium enterprises.

The new Bridging Loan Programme (BLP) is by far the most popular loan scheme, accounting for 53% of total loan value approved to date. The BLP is one of the two programmes launched in this year's budget under the government's Special Risk-sharing Initiative (SRI).