- Mitrovic hat-trick fires Al Hilal past Esteghlal, Neymar replaced early
- Three charged as Modi slams Canada Hindu temple violence
- NATO will 'stay united' whoever wins US election: Rutte
- Turkey sacks 3 mayors on 'terror' charges, sparking fury in southeast
- Thousands protest alleged election fraud in Georgia
- Spain dreads more flood deaths on day six of rescue
- Germany's Baerbock offers Ukraine no guarantees as Kyiv sounds alarm
- Edu resigns as Arsenal sporting director
- Prince William plays rugby on S.Africa climate prize visit
- French boxing quits international body to keep its fighters at Olympics
- Gaza hospital hit as Israel tells UN aid agency ties to be cut
- Ailing Spurs coach Popovich reportedly out indefinitely
- Harris, Trump in last campaign push as polls deadlocked
- Sabalenka advances to WTA Finals last four as Zheng ousts Rybakina
- Noah Lyles fails to make cut for men's world track athlete of year
- Slot braced to face 'special' Alonso in Anfield homecoming
- Germany's Baerbock offers no Ukraine guarantees as Kyiv sounds alarm
- Montreux Jazz Festival hails 'godfather' Quincy Jones
- Chile football star Vidal accused of sexual assault
- Injured Atonio called up to France squad before Japan Test
- 'Guardiola best coach in the world', says Amorim before Man United move
- Fake X accounts promote COP hosts UAE, Azerbaijan
- Turkey sacks 3 pro-Kurdish mayors for 'terror ties'
- China's Zheng beats Rybakina at WTA Finals
- Music mastermind Quincy Jones dies aged 91
- Spain dreads more flood deaths as rain pounds Catalonia
- From abortion to bobcat hunting: US vote not just for president
- Former Scotland rugby captain Stuart Hogg admits domestic abuse
- The US election by numbers
- Win the vote but still lose? Behold America's Electoral College
- The seven states that will decide the US presidency
- Ancelotti a reminder of Milan's glorious past and uncertain present
- Brazil Grand Prix - three things we learned
- Family need 'proof' over fate of German Iran said executed: daughter
- Taylor Fritz books spot in ATP Finals in Turin
- 'Hard to talk about football': Real Madrid's Ancelotti after floods
- US vote unlikely to revitalise Turkey ties
- African players in Europe: Salah takes Liverpool back to top
- World needs to 'wake up' to people smuggling threat: UK's Starmer
- 'War ruined me': Lebanon's farmers mourn lost season
- French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud wins top French literary prize
- Turkey sacks 3 pro-Kurdish party mayors over alleged 'terror' ties
- Sudan's ruling council reshuffles cabinet amid brutal conflict
- Stock markets rise before knife-edge US election
- Pandemic accord deal in sight as talks resume
- EU hails re-election of pro-EU Maia Sandu in tense Moldova vote
- Spain dreads more flood deaths as more rain expected
- Germany's Baerbock vows 'rock-solid' Ukraine support as Russia advances
- Eight on trial over French teacher's 2020 beheading
- Israel tells UN it is cutting ties with Palestinian aid agency
BCC | -0.15% | 134.01 | $ | |
RBGPF | 8.15% | 66.41 | $ | |
BP | 1.7% | 29.735 | $ | |
RIO | -0.49% | 65.014 | $ | |
GSK | 0.26% | 36.975 | $ | |
BTI | 0.1% | 35.105 | $ | |
AZN | 0.01% | 71.43 | $ | |
VOD | -0.32% | 9.32 | $ | |
SCS | 0.98% | 12.26 | $ | |
BCE | -10.27% | 29.11 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.41% | 24.631 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0.28% | 7.1 | $ | |
NGG | 0.28% | 64.44 | $ | |
RELX | -0.05% | 47.055 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.38% | 24.9052 | $ | |
JRI | 0.59% | 13.128 | $ |
China's Xi urges 'all-out' infrastructure push to boost growth
Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for an "all-out" campaign to build infrastructure, according to state media, marking the latest attempt by leaders to boost growth in the Covid-battered economy.
Despite struggling to defeat the country's worst outbreak in two years, the leadership is digging in its heels with a strict zero-Covid policy that involves lockdowns in the biggest cities and mass testing.
But the measures have snarled supply chains and hammered business morale, sending shockwaves through the global economy and markets.
"Infrastructure is an important support for economic and social development," Xi said at a high-level meeting on Tuesday, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
China's "infrastructure is still incompatible with the demand for national development and security", the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs said.
The meeting identified several sectors such as transport and energy where an infrastructure boost was needed, including the construction of ports and airports.
Recent lockdowns have clogged supply chains and transport networks -- including in the economic dynamos of Shanghai and Shenzhen as well as the northeastern grain basket of Jilin.
Xi's comments are the latest in a series of statements and steps aimed at boosting confidence in the economy and reassuring markets, but traders remained unmoved by the latest sweeping pledge, while a major spending push could also reignite debt worries.
After the 2008 financial crisis, Beijing launched a stimulus package worth hundreds of billions of dollars -- including massive infrastructure investment -- but that piled on the debt for local governments and state enterprises.
With risks to consumption and manufacturing exports, "initiatives to ramp up infrastructure spending are a direct policy tool to lift government spending", said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
But infrastructure is "not a quick fix", cautioned Nomura chief China economist Ting Lu.
"Lockdowns make the task of ramping up infrastructure investment more difficult due to... travel bans and shortage of construction workers in... (affected) areas," he told AFP.
It would also "be unrealistic to expect much faster infrastructure investment growth, and its pace... would only fill a small part of the gap left by slowing export growth, the large property sector contraction and the rising costs of China's zero-Covid strategy," Nomura had said in a recent report.
A.Seabra--PC