The Chinese government has approved nearly $23.13 billion worth investment for nine infrastructure projects in a bid to revive the slowing economic activity in the country. The new projects involve construction of bridges and highways among others.
A step up in spending by the authorities in the world's second largest economy comes in the wake of country heading towards its slowest growth in over a decade, Reuters reported.
The Chinese authorities had resorted to similar activity-boosting measures during the financial crisis of 2008-09. Then, it had announced billions of dollars worth stimulus to reinvigorate the economy, and this move finally helped the country to come out of the crisis.
The country now seems to be taking similar actions to spur the economic activity.
Earlier this week, a private survey showed that China's manufacturing activity fell sharply in December triggering a heavy sell-off in the country's stock markets. The panic selling resulted in suspension of trading on Monday.
"China is a powerful country. And the government controls everything. This previously widely held conviction was shaken considerably over the past few days. The turbulence on the stock markets in China and the authorities' reaction to it illustrates very clearly: not even the Communist party's cadres can control market forces," said Commerzbank Corporates & Markets in a note.
Trading in Chinese equity markets got suspended for the second time this week on Thursday after the benchmark index fell over 7% hitting the upper circuit. The fall was mainly driven by concerns over yuan devaluation.
The sharp sell-off intensified investors' worries over risks from China to global economy and some analysts have warned that the world is heading towards another crisis like the one witnessed in the second half of the last decade.
The concerns over the slowdown in China has led the World Bank to cut its 2016 forecast for the Asia's biggest economy to 6.7% from an earlier estimate of 7% made in June.
