China Expands Stealth Stimulus Package

This Bystander noted a couple of days back that there was a risk that the stimulus cash would run out before the underlying economy regained vigor–and that might mean the additional stimulus money Prime Minister Wen Jiabao says he has in his back pocket might be brought out. Now comes news, via Xinhua, that Beijing [...]

Top-Up Stimulus On The Way?

This Bystander has noted before that the signs of revival in the economy are more to do with stimulus spending and pressed lending by state banks than a revival of trade and industry: exports in April were still down 22.6% from the same month a year earlier, energy usage, which correlates closely to industrial production, declined [...]

Cement Sales Rise

Another crocus: Anhui Conch Cement, the country’s biggest cement maker, says sales volume rose 15% in the first quarter. Its executive director Guo Jingbin, says he expects demand to keep rising in the second quarter as stimulus infrastructure spending on roads, ports and railways kicks in. Guo is expecting fixed-asset investment to grow 15-20% this [...]

China’s Stimulus Package Helps GM

This Bystander always takes heart from stories of windfall successes for globalization. Bloomberg is reporting how Beijing’s efforts to stimulate domestic demand and spread growth into the countryside is helping the troubled U.S. auto giant, General Motors.
GM increased its sales of the minivans it makes in China with SAIC by 32% in the first two [...]

Wen Armed And Ready

The top-up stimulus that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was expected to announce at the National People’s Congress but didn’t does exist, he says, but he is keeping it in his back pocket until and if needed. Nor will he say what’s in it, only that “we have reserved adequate ammunition…At any time, we can introduce [...]

Wen Provides Lots Of Familiar Numbers, But No New Stimulus One

A two-hour speech, as dry as tradition demands, but not a mention of the expected additional stimulus spending.
In his annual report to the National People’s Congress, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao ran through familiar economic themes and numbers:
it would be the most difficult year China has faced;
8% GDP growth was the target, raising domestic demand a [...]

Work Starts On New Chengdu-Lanzhou Railway

Work has started on a new high-speed rail line between Chengdu and Lanzhou. When completed in 2014/2015 it will cut travel time between the Sichuan and Gansu provincial capitals from 20 hours to four.
As well as being a shovel-ready infrastructure project to set free stimulus yuan–the line will cost 62 billion yuan ($9 billion), state [...]

Stimulus Ideas To Reject

So here’s a tapioca idea. Hangzhou local officials are to have 5%-10% of their wages paid in shopping coupons. These can be exchange for locally made goods. The coupons may also be given to the poor and the unemployed.
“We have not achieved any results yet,” Shou Xuejun, an official with a local financial bureau, told [...]