China to provide policy support for economic recovery: state planner official

China will lay out policy support for its economic recovery this year; also to avoid a fiscal cliff as small businesses continue to be dragged down by the COVID-19 crises. This development was affirmed by a senior official at the state planner on Tuesday.

With an upbeat economic output in the final quarter of 2020, China was the lone major economy to expand amid a coronavirus-stricken global economy. China is poised to continue its economic expansion this year despite persisting virus infections.

In a major agenda-setting meeting held last month, Chinese leaders iterated to sustain necessary policy support for the economy in 2021. With this in place, the Chinese government is avoiding a sudden policy shift and is pointing to a smaller economic stimulus for this year.

Moreover, policy insiders said China is looking at cooling growth credit and cut down fiscal stimulus this year to balance debt levels. The government has also revealed some measures, including cheap loans for some sectors and deferred loan repayments for small businesses.