By Yidi Zhao
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will announce a new stimulus package at the opening of the annual meeting of lawmakers tomorrow, former statistics bureau head Li Deshui said.
Li spoke outside a meeting of the economic group of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing today. He didn’t say whether spending could be more than the 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) announced in November.
The government may double the spending plan after economic growth cooled to the weakest pace in seven years and 20 million migrant workers lost their jobs, according to Standard Chartered Bank Plc. China will “massively” increase government investment in 2009, expand social-security coverage and target stability, the Communist Party’s Politburo said Feb. 23.
“The government should expand its 4 trillion yuan package to sustain an economic recovery,” Zheng Xinli, a deputy director at the policy research office of the ruling Communist Party said today.
While China’s economy is the only one of the world’s five biggest still expanding, the pace has slowed for six straight quarters. Growth in the three months through December was 6.8 percent from a year earlier, the smallest gain in seven years. That compares with a 13 percent expansion for all of 2007.
The official manufacturing index climbed for a third month in February, signaling that the world’s third-biggest economy may be edging closer to a recovery.
Output and new orders expanded for the first time in five months, evidence that the stimulus package may be taking effect.
To contact the reporter on this story: Yidi Zhao in Beijing at yzhao7@bloomberg.net
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