China ready to help businesses hit by US trade war, says Finance Minister Liu Kun
Minister admits that ‘some regions and companies’ have been affected by the stand-off with the US but insists China can minimise the impact
China has prepared a slew of supportive measures, such as export assistance and skills training, to help business affected by the ongoing trade war with the US, Finance Minister Liu Kun has said.
Liu’s comments were published by the official Xinhua news agency on Sunday evening, a few hours after the central bank announced a move to inject US$110 billion into the world’s second biggest economy to bolster growth.
Liu said that “some regions and some companies” had already been hit by the trade war but “China has the capabilities to minimise the impact”.
The minister also said China would adopt a “more proactive” fiscal policy to counteract the downward pressure on economic growth, including cutting taxes and fees on a larger scale and speeding up bond issuance to safeguard economic growth, according to Xinhua.
Total tax cuts for 2018 are expected to exceed 1.3 trillion yuan (US$189 billion), Liu said.
The coordinated growth efforts by China’s fiscal and monetary authorities suggest Beijing is increasingly concerned about the impact on economic growth of its trade dispute with the US.