Vice-Premier Liu He chaired the 51st meeting of the State Council Financial Stability and Development Committee on May 21, researching and mapping out key work regarding the financial sector in the next stage.

Liu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is head of the State Council Financial Stability and Development Committee.

Stability should be a top priority for the financial system, according to those at the meeting. Multiple monetary policy tools should be utilized to ensure reasonable, adequate liquidity, prevent and defuse risks, and create a virtuous circle of the economy and financial sector.

Those at the meeting urged greater efforts to serve the real economy, further vitalize micro entities, help enterprises and ensure employment. They also called on support for rural revitalization, manufacturing industry, sci-tech innovation and green transformation and development.

Financial risks should be prevented and controlled resolutely, with intensified efforts to scan and warn against risks, promote small and medium-sized financial institutions to reform and defuse risks, and combat mining and trading of bitcoin, according to those at the meeting.

And, related departments should keep steady operations of stock, debt and the foreign exchange market, handle imported inflation well, and prepare response plans and policy reserve.

Also, market-oriented reform of the interest and exchange rate should be pushed forward, and the yuan exchange rate should be maintained within an appropriate and balanced range. The high-level opening-up of the financial sector should be expanded, Liu said.