BEIJING - China will continue to implement a prudent monetary policy and will resolutely not adopt a "flood-like" stimulus, the cabinet said on Wednesday, reiterating the current stance.

China will flexibly use monetary policy tools to expand credit via relending and rediscount, the State Council said after a regular meeting.

The government will ensure financing costs for small firms fall this year and ensure that bond issuance by private firms this year will be larger than 2018, the cabinet said.

The government will set up policy framework to implement relatively low reserve requirement ratios for medium and small banks, it added, without elaborating.

(Reporting by China monitoring desk and Kevin Yao; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) ((kevin.yao@thomsonreuters.com; +8610 6627 1215; Reuters Messaging: kevin.yao.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))