After China’s top economic planner convened a rare national meeting to promote investments, analysts say that authorities are set to speed up bond issuance to fund government-led projects to keep growth on track for the rest of the year.The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) held a meeting on Friday with many of China’s key investment-related central government agencies, including the ministers of industry and information technology, housing and urban-rural development, and transport, alongside senior leadership from water resources and energy.Officials pledged to “maximise investment potential” in areas such as technological innovation, industrial upgrading and urban renewal, and accelerate the deployment of the policy-based financing tool and local government special bonds for major construction projects, according to a readout by state news agency Xinhua.“The current policy focus is clearly on boosting investment instead of consumption, more so than at any time since the global financial crisis,” said Song Yu, chief China economist at UBS Securities, in a report on Monday.The high-level turnout was “unusual” and showed the importance of the meeting, Song said, adding that the government now recognised the limits of consumer goods subsidies in boosting consumption to drive growth.Song noted that faster disbursement of fiscal funds could provide near-term support for infrastructure and related manufacturing activity, and that fixed-asset investment growth could show improvement in the rest of the year.Overall fixed-asset investment, covering major areas such as infrastructure, manufacturing and property construction, fell 6.7 per cent in the January-July period, underperforming market expectations and widening from the 5.7 per cent decline recorded in the first half of the year.
China to speed up bond issuance after national meeting on investment: analysts
The fixed-income securities are to be used to fund national infrastructure and construction ventures to boost the economy.






