China appears to be resorting to its stimulus playbook once again. Bank loans are at a record high, monetary policy has shifted to a “slight easing bias”, reserve requirement ratios have been cut, eight government ministries have pledged to support the industrial sector and downpayment ratios and taxes have been reduced in the real estate sector.
It all appears to be aimed at halting the downward slide in industrial activity: industrial output growth last year fell to its lowest since 1990.
A recent pledge by government ministries to support industry extolled the sector as “the backbone of the real economy” and “the main battlefield for stabilising the economy”. Infrastructure and real estate — two key drivers of demand for industrial goods — were the biggest beneficiaries of January’s lending boom, which has reportedly continued into February, according to banking sources of FT Confidential Research, a unit of the Financial Times.