Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday that despite the decline of a few major economic indicators, China's economy as a whole continues to grow as the government anticipated in its exercise of macro-controls.

Despite the falls, major economic indicators are still at reasonable levels, and confidence should be maintained on the country's economic work, said Wen during a three-day inspection trip to the southeastern Fujian Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China.

Wen called for close attention to new conditions and problems and the implementation of flexible and prudent macro-policies with timely and appropriate anticipatory adjustments and fine-tuning to ensure a sound and rapid economic development.

The government has firm support for small and medium-sized enterprises and it is mulling over further structural tax reductions to back up their development, said Wen when visiting local private enterprises.

The government should carefully deal with pressures on enterprise operation from weak domestic demand and rising export costs by ensuring financial liquidity, stabilizing export policies, helping reduce production costs and encouraging more imports, he said.

Wen also held talks with representatives from Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai on current economic situation on Tuesday. He said China should pay close attention to changes in both domestic and external markets as the global economic condition is still "grim and complicated."

The government should properly handle the relationship among maintaining a sound and rapid economic development, adjusting economic structures and managing inflationary expectations, said Wen.

Chinese authorities will bring out prompt pre-adjustments and fine-tuning on current policies according to the changing situation, get prepared and leave enough room for policy adjustments, he said.

One of the priorities of the pre-adjustments and fine-tunings is to ensure sufficient fund to continue the construction of unfinished projects, especially the country's key projects, according to Wen.

Wen also stressed further supporting agricultural production, ensuring steady foreign trade growth, and firmly regulating real estate market by actively promote the construction of affordable housing.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2012)