Frequent inspection tours around China by senior central government leaders contributed greatly to government decision-making in coping with the global economic downturn, Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday.

Top leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, had visited many businesses since June last year, looking for solutions to the economic slowdown.

"I went for three main reasons: to send a message of confidence, to learn about the situation, and to study and formulate policies," Wen told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

"I myself had visited more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (of the total 31 on the Chinese mainland)," he said.

He said that during an inspection tour of a textile factory in the eastern city of Wuxi in July last year, he saw how the economic crisis had begun affecting export-oriented businesses in the coastal areas.

"After the investigations, the government changed the pre-set economic policies in the second half of last year: we began lowering the reserve ratio, decreasing the interest rate and raising the export rebate rate," he said.

Based on the inspection tours and investigations, the central government subsequently formulated a string of measures to boost domestic demand, such as the 4-trillion-yuan (585.6 billion U.S. dollars) economic stimulus package and the rural home appliances subsidy program.

"When we are looking back on the past, we can see that China acted fast in coping with the economic downturn and the measures were strong," he said.

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