The China Small and Medium Enterprise Confidence Index rose to 54.7 in November from 54.5 in October, with the "credit environment index" rising by 2.3 percentage points to 52.8, indicating that China's policies to support financing of small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) are beginning to work, according to Standard Chartered Bank.

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The index is designed to provide comprehensive evaluation and dynamic observation of the status and development of Chinese SMEs via three sub-indexes, namely performance, expectation and credit.

The improvement of the SME credit environment is mainly due to strong policy support, it said.

The government introduced multiple measures to encourage financing for SMEs, such as calling for banks to increase lending and reduce the cost of loans.

In November, the bank's willingness index to lend to SMEs rose 3.7 percentage points to 54.4 from October, while the cash surplus index and accounts receivable turnover index rose 2.1 percentage points and 1.3 percentage points respectively from October.