China's finance ministry says will step up fiscal expenditure this year

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's finance ministry said on Tuesday that it will step up fiscal expenditure this year and implement larger tax and fee cuts. At the same time, the government said it will reduce its general expenditures by more than 5 percent, the finance ministry said in a statement provided before a news conference. The statement didn't specify areas where expenditure would be reduced. The central bank, in a separate statement on Tuesday, said it will maintain prudent monetary policy, keeping it neither too tight nor too loose, and strengthen the counter-cyclical adjustments. Monetary policy will be made more forward-looking, flexible and targeted, said the bank. (Reporting by Kevin Yao and Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Richard Borsuk)