By Samuel Shen and Tom Westbrook
SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Investors hoping China would announce extra fiscal buffers for an economy girding for another Donald Trump presidency were disappointed on Friday.
China’s top legislative body, the standing committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), did as was expected, approving bills to allow local governments to allocate 10 trillion yuan ($1.40 trillion) towards reducing off-balance sheet, or “hidden”, debt.
But investors had built their anticipation around the timing of the NPC and Trump’s win just a couple of days earlier, and hence expectations of something special to pre-empt another round of fractious Sino-U.S. tensions and trade barriers.
“I think markets are on the disappointed side as there were rumours that the policy could be larger if Trump won the U.S. election,” said Lynn Song, ING’s chief economist for Greater China.
Reuters had reported last week authorities were considering a more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) plan to boost growth and help local governments address debt risks.
After confirming that on Friday, Finance Minister Lan Foan signalled that more stimulus would come.
Analysts say China needs to do more to support consumers as the world’s second-largest economy tackles a property market downturn and weak confidence, and meet the Communist leadership’s 5% growth goal.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House could bring fresh headwinds. Among other things, Trump has vowed to adopt blanket 60% tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese goods.
“It is going to disappoint the market because China needs more essentially,” said UBP’s Asia senior economist Carlos Casanova.
Casanova said China needs a 23 trillion yuan package to resolve the local debt and property problems, which is about 15% of its economy, and is probably “going to hold back some of that fire power until they have a better idea of what President Trump is planning”.
Beijing has been ramping up efforts to boost the fragile economy. Since late September, it has rolled out interest rate cuts and property measures and kicked off an unprecedented 800 billion yuan ($111.60 billion) rescue package for the stock market.
Stock prices rallied sharply in late September but have since lost momentum. The blue-chip CSI 300 Index is still up 20% since then while the Hang Seng Index is down nearly 10% from an October peak.
TURN TO TRUMP TRADE
Investors who had been waiting to hear from the Standing Committee may also now move decisively to position for a second Trump presidency. So far, selling has been limited to exporters and even that has been relatively modest, with stock markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong logging their best week in a month on Friday.
Trump’s threats of high tariffs seem so far to have been viewed as negotiable, and China’s economy is seen as more insulated to trade restrictions than it was eight years ago. “We do think that China is in a good position to navigate tariff risk going forward, whatever may be proposed,” said Robert St Clair, head of investment strategy at Fullerton Fund Management in Singapore, which is bullish on China’s outlook. “There is a tension, but there is also an interdependence between China and the U.S.,” he said. Some investors also see opportunity for China in a more inwardly focused U.S. administration. “Trump’s America First policy is not just targeting China, but also the EU, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other allies, which could help China make breakthroughs against Western curbs,” said Wan Chengshui, head of investment at Guangdong-based asset manager Golden Glede.
($1 = 7.1685 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Additional reporting by Summer Zhen and Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Gareth Jones)
