In 2008, China had launched what in relative terms had been a huge stimulus. In 2020, with the epidemic under control and an eye to the overinvestment and over-borrowing of the past, Beijing was more restrained. The fiscal package announced at the “two sessions” in May 2020 amounted to RMB 3.6 trillion (c. $550 billion), slightly less than the RMB 4 trillion introduced after the 2008 financial crisis in what was a much larger economy. By the end of 2020, the total fiscal effort was estimated at 5.4 percent of GDP, of which 2.6 percent was support for investment, particularly at the local
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