Maintaining credit growth is key, Li tells business heads

Premier Li Keqiang said appropriate policy tools and timely fine-tuning have been developed to tackle capital shortages in the real economy, as the world's second-largest economy continues to face "relatively big" downward pressure.

"The reasonable growth of monetary credit must be maintained to address financing difficulties and reduce the cost to small and medium-sized companies, as well as those based in central and western China," Li told corporate leaders and bank directors in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Thursday after listening to their opinions on the continued economic slowdown.

At the gathering, corporate leaders from a number of industries - energy, chemicals, nonferrous metals, textiles and food - along with directors from both State-owned and local banks, vented their difficulties and identified challenges ahead as they suggested how financial institutions can better support the real economy.