China doubles value of infrastructure project approvals to stave off economic slowdown amid trade war

Sharp increase in infrastructure project approvals implies greater infrastructure spending in coming years, helping to stabilise China’s economy

Actual infrastructure investment accelerated to 4.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2019, up from 4.2 per cent in the first eight months

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The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has given the green light to 21 major infrastructure projects between January and October this year. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:00am, 21 Oct 2019Updated: 2:17pm, 22 Oct 2019

The Chinese government has doubled the value of large-scale infrastructure projects it has approved so far this year compared with last year, as it steps up efforts to steady the flagging economy amid a bruising trade war with the United States.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has approved 21 projects, worth at least 764.3 billion yuan (US$107.8 billion), according to South China Morning Post calculations based on the state planner’s approval statements released between January and October this year.

The amount is more than double the size of last year’s 374.3 billion yuan (US$52.8 billion) in approvals recorded over the same period, which included 11 projects such as railways, roads and airports.

Three of the infrastructure projects approved by the NDRC have price tags over 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion), including the most expensive on the list – a new high-speed railway network linking Chongqing and Kunming in southwest China, worth a total of 141.6 billion yuan (US$19.9 billion). Sichuan province has been given the green light to spend 131.8 billion yuan (US$18.4 billion) to build a new airport, while Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, will be allowed to spend 113.9 billion yuan (US$16 billion) to continue with the third phase of its urban rail transit network.

Actual spending on these projects will play out over a number of years, but the acceleration in approvals makes clear that infrastructure investment will rise, perhaps dramatically, in the next several years, helping to boost growth.

That increase in spending appears to already be underway. Actual infrastructure investment accelerated to 4.5 per cent in the first nine months of this year, up from 4.2 per cent year on year in the first eight months, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Friday.

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