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Chinese lawmakers meet to approve long-awaited fiscal stimulus
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Chinese lawmakers meet to approve long-awaited fiscal stimulus

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Chinese lawmakers will begin a week-long session on Monday that is expected to approve the country’s biggest fiscal plan since the pandemic in a bid to boost confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.

Beijing has not yet indicated the extent of the measures, but the finance minister Lan Fo’an promised last month it would help resolve some of the trillions of dollars of debt burdening China’s cash-strapped local governments.

Analysts say China must spend up to 10 trillion RMB ($1.4 billion) over three years to help revive an economy hit by a prolonged real estate crisis.

But they warn that China It will be necessary to target budgetary expenditure not only on the debt of local authorities, but also on households, which have suffered from the real estate crisis, if we want to revive confidence in the economy.

Fiscal easing “holds the key to the effectiveness of the ongoing stimulus plan,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a report, underscoring the importance of this week’s NPC meeting.

China’s recovery policy started abruptly at the end of September when the central bank and other financial regulators announced interest rate cuts and other monetary measures to support stock and real estate markets.

Economists believe Chinese leaders were concerned about GDP growth in the quarter ended at the end of September. grew at a lower rate the official annual target of 5 percent for the second consecutive quarter.

China is struggling with what some call a two-speed economy, with strong exports offsetting weak domestic demand.

But market enthusiasm over Beijing’s initial change of heart on the stimulus package was tempered by the slow release of details of the next phase of the campaign: the fiscal spending plan.

NPC Observer, a website that tracks China’s parliament, said the NPC would likely announce its decision on the budget package on state television news on Friday, with details expected later in the day.

Chinese Vice Finance Minister Liao Min said in Washington last month that the package would involve “a series of powerful measures” to resolve the debt problems of local governments, which relied heavily on land sales until the bursting of the country’s real estate bubble in 2021.

He added that these policies would also aim to stabilize the real estate market and stimulate domestic demand through programs to encourage industry to upgrade equipment and consumers to replace their household appliances and other goods.

“China is confident that it will achieve its annual economic growth target. . . and continue to add momentum to global economic growth,” Liao said, according to the Ministry of Finance website.

Analysts estimate that the NPC could raise the debt ceiling to allow the issuance of swaps of up to RMB 6 trillion to allow local governments to refinance debt off-balance sheet.

Economists said the NPC could also approve the issuance of an additional RMB 1 billion in special sovereign bonds to recapitalize large state-owned banks.

Goldman said the government could raise the central government’s official budget deficit target to 3.6 percent of GDP next year, from 3 percent this year. He said the fiscal package would be smaller than during Covid and previous years.

Most analysts warn that while tackling local government debt is beneficial for financial stability and could boost some consumption if it leads to the payment of civil servants’ salaries and arrears to suppliers, it would not add much -thing on demand. Neither is the recapitalization of banks.

“Any additional borrowing approved for these policies will not provide much of a fiscal boost,” said Leah Fahy, a China economist at Capital Economics.

Macquarie economist Larry Hu also warned that the aim of the stimulus measures was primarily to meet official growth targets.

“The stimulus measures announced so far are enough to achieve 5 percent GDP growth this year, but not enough to revive the economy. Consumer and homebuyer confidence remains low,” Hu said.