BEIJING, April 17 (Reuters) - China will step up macroeconomic policies to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as its economy faces unprecedented challenges, the ruling Communist Party's politburo said on Friday, state television reported.

China will make prudent monetary policy more flexible and proactive fiscal policy more effective, according to the meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping.

To support the real economy, especially small and medium-sized companies, the government will use tools such as reserve requirement ratios cuts, interest rate cuts and re-lending. It will also guide market interest rates lower, it said.

China's economy shrank for the first time since at least 1992 in the first quarter, as the coronavirus outbreak paralysed production and spending, raising pressure on authorities to do more to stop mounting job losses. (Reporting by Colin Qian and Nori Shirouzu; Editing by Toby Chopra)