China to Spend Us$1.1 Trillion on Infrastructure in 2015

• 31 December 2015
• Local News
• 679 Views

China will spend US$1.1 trillion on accelerating 300 infrastructure projects in 2015. The move has been widely seen as an attempt by the government to boost growth in an economy that has the potential to slip below 7 percent for the first time in more than 20 years.

The projects were approved supposedly as part of a broader 400-venture, 10 trillion yuan plan to run from late 2014 through 2016 which will be funded by the central and local governments, state-owned firms, loans and the private sector.

Though not officially announced, Bloomberg reported that the investment will be in seven industries including oil and gas pipelines, health, clean energy, transportation, and mining.

China has sought ways to stimulate growth without resorting to full-blown stimulus as it seeks to keep a lid on total debt that is now more than 200 percent of gross domestic product. The central bank added liquidity into the banking system last year and announced an interest-rate cut on 21 November.

China’s total fixed-asset investment in the first 11 months of the 2014 was 45.1 trillion yuan. Infrastructure spending totaled 9.8 trillion yuan in transportation, environment and water management, and the supply of heat, gas and water according to National Bureau of Statistics data compiled by Bloomberg .