If we add the government deficit at all levels to the growth in bank credit beyond the 15 percent per annum expansion that had been the norm in China over the previous years, we get a measure of the true scale of China’s stimulus. In 2009 its dimensions were extraordinary—950 billion yuan in deficit, 467 billion in additional bond finance and 5 trillion in bank loans beyond the previous growth norm, for a total stimulus of 6,487 billion RMB, or 19.3 percent of GDP.36
