China will strengthen its fiscal policy over the next five years, the country’s finance minister said on Saturday in an interview with Xinhua News Agency, according to Reuters. Finance Minister Lan Foan said China will enhance counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical regulation and set the deficit-to-GDP ratio and the scale of government borrowing to suit evolving conditions. He added that China will make use of tools such as the budget, taxation, government bonds, and transfer payments to provide sustained support for economic and social development. Internationally, the external environment remains volatile and unstable, and major-country rivalry is becoming increasingly complex and intense, he said, without mentioning any specific countries or China’s trade dispute with the United States.
