China’s Xi announces another infrastructure push to boost growth as Covid drags on

[superadmin]

• Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for an “all-out” effort to construct infrastructure. Proposed projects range from waterways and railways to facilities for cloud computing.
  
• “The meeting suggests to us that Chinese policymakers have been increasingly aware of the strong growth headwinds from Covid restrictions and continued property downturn, and thus becoming more determined to ramp up policy easing measures,” Lisheng Wang and a team at Goldman Sachs said in a note Wednesday.
  
• Analysts expect more debt will be used to fund the new infrastructure projects, reversing government attempts in recent years to rein in heavy reliance on debt for growth.
  

BEIJING — As Covid controls drag down growth, China plans to boost its economy with more infrastructure investment.

That’s the same approach the government has used in the past, and one that analysts say adds to problems for sustainable growth in the long term.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for an “all-out” effort to construct infrastructure. Proposed projects range from waterways and railways to facilities for cloud computing.

Xi was speaking at a meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, a group he heads.

“The meeting suggests to us that Chinese policymakers have been increasingly aware of the strong growth headwinds from Covid restrictions and continued property downturn, and thus becoming more determined to ramp up policy easing measures,” Lisheng Wang and a team at Goldman Sachs said in a note Wednesday.

- More -