BEIJING- China's economy faces new downward pressures but authorities should avoid rolling out economic measures in a "campaign-like and aggressive" way, state media on Monday quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying.

The world's second-largest economy had staged an impressive rebound from last year's pandemic slump, but has since lost momentum as it grapples with a slowing manufacturing sector, debt problems in the property market and COVID-19 outbreaks.

China should step up efforts to stabilise six key areas including employment, financing, trade, and investment and guarantee people's livelihood and the development of market entities and food and energy security, Li was quoted as saying.

But the government should avoid taking "a campaign-like, aggressive and one-size-fits-all approach" when rolling out economic measures, Li said during a meeting with provincial officials.

The government is studying policies on tax and fee cuts, along with some reform steps, to support businesses, Li said.

The People's Bank of China said on Friday it would keep its prudent monetary policy "flexible and targeted".

Noumra said some changes in the wording of the central bank's third-quarter monetary policy implementation report suggested it could become more decisive in monetary easing. "We expect the chance for an RRR cut to rapidly rise in the next couple of months, but we still view the likelihood of a policy rate cut as quite small," Nomura said in a note. China's cabinet said in Monday it would increase financing support for small businesses hurt by soaring raw material prices, power shortages and recent COVID-19 outbreaks. 

(Reporting by Kevin Yao and Beijing newsroom, Editing by Louise Heavens) ((kevin.yao@thomsonreuters.com; +8610 5669 2128;))