Chinese bankers and entrepreneurs expressed growing optimism over the country's macroeconomy in the first quarter of this year, a pair of surveys conducted by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) showed Monday.

The first survey on bankers found that the macroeconomy heat index stood at 40.2 percent in the first three months of 2023, up 22.8 percentage points from the previous quarter, with 62.8 percent of respondents saying the macroeconomy was operating normally.

The bankers' outlook index for macroeconomy heat rose to 50.9 percent for the second quarter, 10.7 percentage points higher than the first quarter.

It also showed that aggregate loan demand rose between January and March, with the index up 19 percentage points from the previous quarter to 78.4 percent.

The PBOC, the central bank, cut the reserve requirement ratio, the amount of cash financial institutions must hold in reserves, to retain appropriate levels of liquidity and support the real economy in March.

A separate central bank survey on entrepreneurs' macroeconomy heat index came in at 33.8 percent in the January-March period, up 10.3 percentage points from the previous quarter.

About 64.6 percent of the surveyed entrepreneurs from 5,000 businesses thought the macroeconomy was operating normally in the first quarter.

Read more: China's central bank announces first RRR cut in 2023

(With input from Xinhua)