A day after China’s central bank announced an extension of support measures for property developers until the end of 2024 – urging banks to renew existing loans and adjust repayment terms – a major state financial newspaper is reporting today that a new aid package for the struggling economy is imminent. Here, too, it would concern the critical real estate sector, and its goal would also be to strengthen business confidence.

THE Shanghai Securities News Wang Qing, chief macroeconomic analyst at Golden Credit Rating, said policymakers may decide to loosen mortgage rules and lower home loan interest rates.

The world’s second-largest economy is on the brink of deflation, new economic indicators released yesterday showed, confirming China’s struggles to restart activity beyond the short-term boost provided by the end of the zero-Covid policy. The decline in producer prices in China deepened in June (-5.4% after -4.6% in May and -5% expected according to the Bloomberg consensus), while consumer prices (+0% from +0.2% previously and + 0.2% expected) remained stable.

China’s real estate crisis, which is visibly more serious than Beijing’s initial estimates, is stifling China’s recovery.

Home sales fell again in June after a brief recovery earlier in the year, adding to pressure on debt-laden developers and weighing on global prices for metals such as iron ore and copper.