China to allocate more funds in October to support trade-in program

 China's top economic planner on Friday said that another 69 billion yuan (about 9.65 billion U.S. dollars) in ultra-long special treasury bond funds will be allocated in October to support the country's consumer goods trade-in program.

This will be the fourth and final batch of the year, according to Jiang Yi, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), who noted that the country has already issued its third batch of ultra-long special treasury bond funds in the same amount.

The Ministry of Finance, together with the NDRC, has this year earmarked 300 billion yuan in such funds to back the consumer goods trade-in program.

The economic performance in the first half of the year demonstrated strong resilience, with domestic demand contributing 68.8 percent to GDP growth and continuing to serve as a driving force for expansion, NDRC official Zhou Chen told a press conference Friday.

Moving forward, the NDRC will continue to promote the introduction and implementation of a series of measures to stabilize employment and the economy, Zhou said.

The NDRC will strengthen economic monitoring, forecasting and early warning, regularly conduct policy research and preparation, and continuously improve the policy toolkit for stabilizing employment and expanding domestic demand, Zhou added. ■