Government-backed lending jumped sharply last month and also in the first few days of this month, said enterprise development agency, Spring Singapore at a media briefing on Wednesday.

The latest data from Spring showed that the number of approvals for Government-backed loans rose by a staggering 82 per cent - from 226 to 411 loans approved - between December last year and last month.

Total loan amounts granted to businesses under the schemes also shot up up by 77 per cent, from $80.4 million to $142.2 million over the same period.

These upbeat figures relate to the first round of measures to tackle the effects of the global credit crunch, worth $2.3 billion, unveiled by the Government last November, which took effect on Dec 1.

These include the new Bridging Loan and existing schemes like the Loan Insurance Scheme (LIS), the LIS+, the Local Enterprise Finance Scheme and the Micro Loan Programme.

Budget day on Jan 22 saw the Government schemes reinforced with a $5.8 billion Special Risk-Sharing Initiative (SRI) which came into effect on Feb 1.

'The first week of February was when the second enhancement kicked-in and we're already seeing 140 loans being approved in just one week,' said Spring chief executive Png Cheong Boon.

He added that discussions with lenders are pointing to more loans being dispersed. 'If that rate continues...we will probably see 500 to 600 approvals for this month,' said Mr Png.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.