Coronavirus: China set to push economic policy to new limits as National People’s Congress begins
- China is expected to reveal unprecedented fiscal support for its virus-hit economy at the National People’s Congress this week
- China’s fiscal deficit, GDP growth target still subject of heated debate on eve of annual gathering
This is the sixth in a nine-part series examining the issues that Chinese leaders face as they gather for their annual “two sessions” of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference this week. This instalment looks at the economic policies China will use to respond to fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
China is set to unveil a series of extraordinary economic policies at its annual parliamentary gathering on Friday, including a fiscal package that could surpass that used during the global financial crisis a decade ago, as Beijing seeks to tackle threats from the coronavirus and an increasingly hostile world, analysts say.
While China has encountered economic shocks before, none has inflicted as much pain on companies, households and individuals as the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the first quarter, China was dragged into an economic contraction for the first time since 1976 and its role in global value chains is now under threat.
The international environment is turning from bad to worse … led by an increasingly confrontational US-China relationship. At home, it’s hard to say the economy has recovered
Tens of millions of Chinese migrant workers have been thrown out of work as sectors from catering to tourism struggle to get back on track. Export orders, meanwhile, are vanishing for many small businesses as the pandemic ravages the United States and Europe.