China’s Politburo Supercharges Stimulus With Housing, Rates Vows

China’s top leaders ramped up efforts to revive growth with pledges to support fiscal spending and stabilize the beleaguered property sector, giving new momentum to stimulus measures aimed at arresting a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

President Xi Jinping’s huddle of the 24-man Politburo concluded with a promise to strive to achieve the country’s annual economic goals, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday. Officials pledged action to make the real estate market “stop declining,” their strongest vow yet to stabilize the crucial sector after new-home prices fell in August at the fastest pace since 2014.

The Politburo said the government will also strictly limit the construction of new-home projects to ease residential oversupply, although such buildings have ground to a near-halt.

While the Politburo offered no specifics on fiscal spending, Reuters reported late Thursday that the Ministry of Finance plans to issue 2 trillion yuan ($284 billion) of special sovereign bonds this year. Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, said funding will be evenly split between stimulating consumption and helping local governments tackle debt problems.

“Two trillion yuan well beat expectations,” said Bruce Pang, chief economist for Greater China at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. “This big bang fiscal stimulus underpins both boosting consumption and defusing risks.”

He added that the package revealed this week, including reported plans for sovereign bond sales, would lift the economy by 0.2 percentage points, helping the government hit its annual growth goal of around 5%.