China says it will significantly increase its debt issuance to help lift the economy, which has been weighed down by a prolonged slump in the property market.
Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan announced the fiscal stimulus plan in Beijing on Saturday.
He said capital will be injected into state-owned banks to increase their resilience and allow them to better serve the real economy.
Local governments will also receive support to tackle their debt problems. Measures to shore up the property market are also in the works.
Lan said the Chinese government still has considerable room to issue debt. But he did not specify the scale of the fiscal spending or details of the stimulus measures.
Amid growing uncertainties over the economy, China’s central bank announced additional monetary easing steps, including rate cuts, in late September. The Chinese Communist Party has also called for aggressive fiscal policies.
Hopes for a stimulus package had lifted stocks in China, with the benchmark index in Shanghai rising for 10 straight trading days since late last month.
Attention is now on how the financial markets will react to Saturday’s announcement, as it was short on the details that many investors were expecting to hear.