Chinese premier stresses coordination of fiscal, financial policies to boost demand

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday chaired a State Council executive meeting during which arrangements were made to implement a package of policies that will boost domestic demand by leveraging coordinated fiscal and financial measures.

The meeting noted that the package is an important measure to expand effective demand and innovate the approaches of macro-control.

Efforts should be made to refine loan interest subsidy policies for businesses in the services sector and personal consumption, aiming to expand the supply of high-quality services and boost household purchasing power, the meeting said.

It said that loan interest subsidy policies will be implemented for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, with an eye to bolstering private investment, and to lowering financing thresholds and costs for companies.

It stressed that basic public services should be provided based on an individual's place of permanent residence. Efforts will be made to address the most pressing concerns of permanent residents without a local household registration, and on improving their access to education, healthcare and employment services.

The U.S. dollar strengthened in late trading on Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, added 0.2 percent to 99.132 at 15:00 (2000 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.1635 dollars from 1.1650 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.3407 dollars from 1.3431 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 157.88 Japanese yen, higher than 156.97 Japanese yen in the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.8010 Swiss francs from 0.7995 Swiss francs, and it climbed to 1.3910 Canadian dollars from 1.3868 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar was down to 9.2025 Swedish kronor from 9.2246 Swedish kronor.