China cuts pension, insurance costs to help firms hit by coronavirus

China will cut some pension contributions and insurance fees to help companies affected to the coronavirus outbreak, state television quoted a cabinet meeting as saying on Tuesday. Companies in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, will be exempted from paying pensions, jobless insurance and work injury insurance from February to June, it said.

The government will keep the minimum purchase price for rice stable this year, it said. It will also accelerate hog production and increase state reserves of frozen pork, it added.