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BEIJING — China said Saturday it would issue special bonds to help its sputtering economy, signalling a spending spree to bolster banks, shore up the property market and ease local government debt as part of one of its biggest support packages in years.

The plan is part of a series of actions undertaken by Beijing to draw a line under a years-long property sector crisis and chronically low consumption that has plagued the world's second biggest economy.

Beijing's planned special bonds are aimed at boosting the capital available to banks — part of a push to get them lending in the hopes of firing up sluggish consumer spending.

China is also preparing to allow local governments to borrow more to fund the acquisition of unused land for development, aimed at pulling the property market out of a prolonged slump.

No figures were provided on the planned special bonds announced at a highly anticipated press conference by Finance Minister Lan Fo'an and other officials, following a series of steps launched in recent weeks that have included interest rate cuts and liquidity for banks.

But Lan said China still has room "to issue debts and increase the deficit" to fund the new measures.

Officials have been battling to reverse China's slowdown and achieve a growth target of five per cent this year — enviable for many Western countries but a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years boosted the Asian giant.

On Saturday, Lan said Beijing was "accelerating the use of additional treasury bonds, and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds are also being issued for use".

"In the next three months, a total of 2.3 trillion yuan of special bond funds can be arranged for use in various places," he added.

On top of that, Beijing also plans to "issue special government bonds to support large state-owned commercial banks," Lan said, although he did not say how much.

Chinese authorities have been urging commercial banks to lend more and lower mortgage rates — measures that would put more cash into the pockets of consumers.

Beijing's bonds would therefore offer banks help to shore up their capital, giving them greater leeway to lend more.

Bonds for buildings 

Local governments will be issued special bonds enabling them to acquire unused and idle land for development, Vice Finance Minister Liao Min said.

The move would "help ease liquidity and debt pressures on local governments and real estate companies," he explained.

Beijing will also encourage the acquisition of existing commercial properties to be used as affordable housing.

However, analysts expressed frustration that Beijing had refrained from putting a number on further fiscal stimulus.

Beijing was likely "still working on the minute details of the fiscal stimulus," Heron Lim at Moody's Analytics told AFP.

"In the meantime, investors might be taking a step back until they are absolutely certain of the direction fiscal policy is taking."

On the streets of Beijing on Saturday though, those who spoke to AFP were largely optimistic.

"Everyone has been paying close attention to this meeting, especially since the stock market has recently been experiencing a downward trend," said Quan Sheng, a 41-year-old who works in IT.

"I believe this is definitely positive news... This provides confidence for investors, who believe that the stock market can gradually strengthen," he added.

'Lack of forward guidance' 

China's economic uncertainty is fuelling a vicious cycle that has kept consumption stubbornly low.

On Saturday, "notably absent was any mention of large-scale handouts to consumers", said Capital Economics' Julian Evans-Pritchard.

"The lack of forward guidance on the scale of next year's budget deficit means it is still difficult to judge how large and long-lasting the fiscal boost will be," he added.

In recent weeks, Chinese policymakers have unveiled a string of stimulus measures including a suite of rate cuts and a loosening of rules on buying homes, but economists have warned more action is needed to pull the economy out of its slump for good.

Earlier on Saturday, China's top banks said they would cut lower interest rates on existing mortgages from October 25, following a government call for the action.

"Except for second mortgages in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and some other regions, the interest rates on other eligible mortgages will be adjusted" to no less than 30 basis points below the prime lending rate, the central bank's benchmark rate for mortgages, state broadcaster CCTV said.

CCTV reported that major banks had announced that they would make the adjustments "in batches".

The People's Bank of China last month requested that commercial banks lower such rates by October 31.

BEIJING — China's central bank on Thursday launched a "swap facility" offering firms access to 500 billion yuan ($70.6 billion) in liquidity, as Beijing seeks to boost the country's flagging economy.

The programme would allow "qualified... companies to exchange bonds, stock ETFs, CSI 300 constituent stocks and other assets with the People's Bank of China for high-grade liquid assets such as treasury bonds and central bank bills", the bank said.

"The scale of the first phase of the operation is 500 billion yuan and can be further expanded depending on the situation," it added.

"Starting today, applications from qualified securities, funds and insurance companies will be accepted.".

Announcing the plans last month, central bank chief Pan Gongsheng said the move would "significantly enhance" firms' ability to access funds to buy stocks.

The news comes after traders on the mainland and in Hong Kong were left disappointed by a news conference Tuesday in which officials failed to unveil any new stimulus and provided scant detail on its plans for implementing the raft measures already announced.

The world's second-largest economy has struggled to regain its footing since the lifting of pandemic measures at the end of 2022.

Economists say more direct state support is needed to boost consumption and achieve the government's official national growth target of about five per cent for this year.

PARIS — The world is falling short of a global agreement to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 but the target is within reach if governments take policy actions, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

With China and solar energy leading the charge, renewables are set to meet almost half of global electricity demand by the end of the decade, the Paris-based IEA said in an annual report on the sector.

"Renewables are moving faster than national governments can set targets for," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.

"This is mainly driven not just by efforts to lower emissions or boost energy security — it's increasingly because renewables today offer the cheapest option to add new power plants in almost all countries around the world," he said.

Nearly 70 countries that account for 80 per cent of global renewable energy capacity will reach or exceed their current ambitions for 2030, the report found.

But global capacity is forecast to reach 2.7 times its 2022 level by 2030, short of the tripling target set at the UN's COP28 climate summit in Dubai last year, the agency said.

The world is set to add more than 5,500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity between 2024 and 2030 under current policies and market conditions, said the agency, whose members are mostly developed nations.

China will account for almost 60 per cent of the expansion in global capacity to the end of the decade, compared to a third in 2010.

The United States and European Union are forecast to double the pace of capacity growth "while India sees the fastest rate of growth among large economies", the report said.

Solar capacity will account for 80 per cent of the growth in renewable power globally by 2030.

The IEA said its analysis "indicates that fully meeting the tripling target is entirely possible if governments take near-term opportunities for action".

Countries need to enhance their ambitions in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due next year.

Under the Paris climate agreement, countries are supposed to outline how they intend to contribute to collective efforts to confront climate change in their NDCs.

The IEA said there is a "large untapped renewables potential" in emerging and developing countries that can be realised if policies improve.

"High financing costs reduce the economic attractiveness of renewables in most emerging and developing economies," it said.

"Other key challenges include weak grid infrastructure and a lack of visibility over auction volumes."

The IEA also said Europe and the United States should shorten permitting processes to unlock the potential while China should address challenges in integrating renewables to its grid network.

TAIPEI —  Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn said on Tuesday it was building the world's largest production facility for US hardware leader Nvidia's GB200 "superchips" powering artificial intelligence servers.

Foxconn, also known by its official name Hon Hai Precision Industry, is the world's biggest contract electronics manufacturer and assembles devices for major tech companies, including Apple.

Ambitious to expand beyond electronics assembly, the firm has been pushing into areas ranging from electric vehicles to semiconductors and servers.

"We're building the largest GB200 production facility on the planet," senior executive Benjamin Ting said at the company's annual "Hon Hai Tech Day".

"I don't think I can say where now, but it's the largest on the planet," said Ting, Foxconn's senior vice president for the cloud enterprise solutions business.

Opening the two-day event, chairman Young Liu told the audience that Foxconn would be "the first to ship these superchips".

Unlike its rivals Intel, Micron and Texas Instruments, Nvidia does not manufacture its own chips, but uses subcontractors.

Foxconn was expected to unveil new electric vehicle models at the tech day, as it has in previous years.

Foxconn announced last year that it would team up with Nvidia to create "AI factories" — powerful data-processing centres that would drive the production of next-generation products.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — France's budget for 2025 will "fully" be in line with the European Union's new spending rules, Finance Minister Antoine Armand vowed, ahead of his first meeting with EU counterparts on Monday.

The new minister will present the national budget on Thursday, which Paris hopes will tackle France's "colossal" debt through spending cuts and new taxes.

"We have prepared a budget to strengthen the country's financial and national sovereignty," Armand said during a media briefing, adding that respecting EU rules is "a question of international credibility".

Brussels has already rebuked France for breaking budget rules, placing the country in a formal procedure in July because its deficit is above three percent.

France must submit a plan to reduce its public deficit, but Paris obtained a delay after a new government had to be appointed following snap elections.

France is looking to improve its financial situation by some 60 billion euros ($66 billion) in 2025 in the hope of bringing the public sector deficit to five per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from an estimated 6.1 per cent this year.

Armand was bullish about France's push to reduce the deficit below EU rules.

"Our objective is to bring our deficit below the three percent mark by 2029," he said, which is two years longer than his predecessor Bruno Le Maire's promise earlier in 2024.

He reiterated France's determination to get the deficit down to five percent next year.

"The prime minister has given me an extremely clear mandate: to defend French and European interests in the world in economic and financial matters," Armand said.

The minister will head to Luxembourg later on Monday for a meeting with his counterparts in the eurozone to deliver a presentation about France's policy priorities.

AMMAN — The Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) recorded exports totalling JD1.041 billion during the first nine months of 2024, according to certificates of origin issued for shipments to Arab and foreign markets last week. This marks a slight increase compared to JD1.037 billion in the same period last year. The Jordan News Agency (Petra) reported. 

The chamber's statistical data, also revealed a 6.6% rise in the number of certificates of origin issued, with 29,460 certificates issued between January and September 2024, up from 27,643 certificates during the same period in 2023, according to the Jordan News Agency (Petra).

Saudi Arabia has led the destinations for exports with 8,848 certificates, followed by the UAE with 3,086, Iraq with 1,898, Egypt with 894, and Switzerland with 21 certificates.

In terms of export value, Iraq topped the list, receiving goods worth approximately JD511 million, followed by Saudi Arabia with JD91 million, Egypt with JD78 million, the UAE with JD65 million, and Switzerland with JD50 million.

Exports during the first nine months of 2024 were distributed across several categories, with foreign goods (re-exports) accounting for JD517 million, industrial products for JD211 million, agricultural products for JD143 million, and Arab products for JD68 million. The remaining exports included other product categories.

The Amman Chamber of Commerce issues certificates of origin for Jordanian agricultural, animal, and natural resource products, as well as for foreign goods being re-exported and those purchased locally under specific guidelines.

Additionally, the chamber provides certificates of origin for Jordanian industrial products upon request, based on original factory invoices duly certified by an industrial chamber, ensuring the goods are of Jordanian origin.

BEIJING — China's meteoric rise as the world's powerhouse of electric vehicle production makes Western efforts to curb their exports a tough sell — and means they could even stifle the fight against climate change, analysts warn.

EU states are expected to vote Friday on whether to impose hefty tariffs on imported EVs from China — part of a bid to protect its automotive industry from low-cost, subsidised competition.

And the United States has sought to stop a flood of cheap Chinese electric cars from flooding its markets, undercutting its own car giants and pricing out American workers.

Western powers have long raised concerns about the risks of Chinese "overcapacity", fuelled by Beijing's vast industrial subsidies and waning consumption at home.

But experts say that with the West keen to hit ambitious climate goals and the need to speed up the transition to green energy, it can ill-afford to prop up its stagnating car industry.

"There is no way the EU and US can reach their climate goals within the timeframes they've originally articulated without the help of Chinese EVs," Tu Le, managing director at Sino Auto Insights, told AFP.

"They'll either need to reconcile their goals or allow some entry of Chinese EVs."

China long lagged the West in its auto sector and in the push for green energy to curb rising emissions, of which it remains the world's largest producer.

But a push to expand green energy production and reduce China's emissions has seen production of EVs and their necessary components soar.

That policy has led Beijing to more than $230 billion for the EV industry between 2009 and 2023, analysis by Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies found.

Pushing into LatAm 

Subsidies and support from Beijing have been "key players in the rapid growth of China's EV market", MingYii Lai, a consultant at Daxue Consulting, told AFP.

That push has seen Chinese car giants like BYD — once known for making batteries — post record annual profits for last year.

In 2023, more than half of all electric vehicles sold worldwide were made by Chinese firms, according to the International Energy Agency.

Much of that was driven by domestic consumption — of all new EVs sold globally in December, 69 per cent were in China, according to the research firm Rystad Energy.

But China's EV giants have made no secret of their overseas ambitions.

BYD has said it hopes to be among the top five car companies in Europe and has plans to open factories in Hungary and Turkey.

Chinese automakers are even making inroads in Latin America — they sold $8.5 billion of cars in the region last year, up from $2.2 billion in 2009, according to the International Trade Center, a UN agency.

And analysts from consulting firm AlixPartners estimate Chinese companies will hold 33 percent of the global car market by 2030.

Washington has sought to boost its own domestic EV market, in July unveiling $1.7 billion in grants to help expand or revive auto facilities for making electric vehicles and parts.

And the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act funnelled some $370 billion into subsidies for America's energy transition, including tax breaks for US-made EVs and batteries.

The rapid growth of their Chinese competitors has set off alarm bells in Washington and Brussels.

"The fear is that these companies are gaining such a market share so quickly," Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow at the CSIS think tank, told AFP.

"There is a push to electrify — and they have the best, cheapest EVs out there," she said.

'White flag'

Analysts say the European Union simply can't afford to take as hard a line as the United States, which has accused Beijing of "cheating" and imposed a 100 per cent duty on electric vehicles from China.

"German automakers rely so heavily on the China market for its profits," Sino Auto Insights' Tu said.

"The two largest European automakers now have significant stakes in Chinese EV brands... it's in their best interests that those companies are successful," he added, referring to Stellantis and Volkswagen.

Those firms "have already waved the white flag and decided they can't compete and would rather partner".

That is also complicated by the global push to reduce emissions.

"The urgency of combating climate change needs the world to move faster to advance the energy transition in all sectors, and calls for more clean power and more EVs on the road," analysts at the US-based sustainability think tank RMI wrote in August.

"China can provide the world with cleaner, high-quality and affordable vehicles," they said.

The European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen drove through an ambitious legislative "Green Deal" including flagship measures such as a ban on new combustion engine cars from 2035.

But without a steady stream of electric vehicles on Europe's roads, analysts say, that goal will be tough to meet.

While the EU's efforts "aim to protect local industries and ensure fair competition, they could inadvertently limit the availability and affordability of EVs", Daxue Consulting's Lai said.

"This might... slow down the transition to electric vehicles, which is essential for tackling climate change."