BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua) -- China will attach greater importance to targeted control measures to keep economic growth in a proper range, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Tuesday. 

The country will focus on important issues in the economy, and make efforts to tackle them in a "precise, prompt and appropriate" manner, the premier said.

Meanwhile, presetting and fine-tuning economic policies will be carried out along with risk prevention, said the premier while addressing the nation's top academicians and scientists at a conference in Beijing.

Li said that the country will continue to innovate its macro-control ideologies, draw economic momentum from reforms and restructuring, and improve people's livelihoods.

Li acknowledged that the economy still faces heavy downward pressure and imbalanced regional development. The Chinese economy grew 7.4 percent year on year in the first quarter, marking the weakest pace in 18 months. The country aims for an annual growth rate of around 7.5 percent for 2014.

However, a growing consumption market at home and the processes of industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization boast great potentials, said the premier, adding the country will have the capabilities to maintain medium to high level of economic growth for a long period.

To achieve the goal, innovation is a must to drive growth toward better quality and greater efficiency, and lift the economy higher on the value chain.

The government will continue to beef up fiscal support, to encourage enterprises to concentrate more on research and development, the premier said.

Targeting support for agriculture and small companies, the central bank announced on Monday that it will cut the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points for the banks engaged in proportionate lending to the farming sector or small and micro-sized enterprises, effective on June 16.

Related:China's CPI reaches 4-month high at 2.5 pct

BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer prices increased at a four-month-high pace in May as the cost of food, especially fresh fruits, jumped, official data showed on Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, increased 2.5 percent year on year in May, up from 1.8 percent in the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). 

Xinhua Insight: China's PMI hits 5-month high, pointing to stabilizing economy

BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Growth in China's manufacturing sector continued to accelerate in May, hitting a five-month high and adding to signs of a stabilizing economy, official data showed on Sunday.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) increased to 50.8 in May from 50.4 in April, according to data released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).