China’s finance ministry on Saturday announced policies for local governments to buy land and housing from property developers, and promised intensive support to help localities with their hidden debts, as Beijing levels up stimulus for a slowing economy, reports Caixin. These highly anticipated fiscal measures are expected to complement a slate of monetary and other initiatives announced by the country’s central bank last month to boost the sluggish economic recovery.
“Countercyclical” fiscal measures are “by no means” limited to those announced Saturday, Finance Minister Lan Foan said at a press conference on the same day, adding that policymakers are studying other policy tools. For example, the central government has a “relatively large” amount of room to increase its deficit and issue more debt, he noted.
Tools including local government special-purpose bonds (SPBs), special funds and tax policies will be used in tandem to arrest the slide in the real estate market, Lan said.