Xinhua Finance and Economics, Beijing, October 12 (Dong Daoyong, Kang Gengfu) At the press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the 12th, Minister of Finance Lan Foan introduced a package of incremental fiscal policy measures to be launched in the near future. In this regard, experts said that the incremental fiscal policy focuses on resolving risks, protecting people's livelihood, and stabilizing growth, taking into account the goals of promoting development and preventing risks, which will help stabilize market expectations and confidence of all parties, and lay a solid foundation for the sustained improvement of the economy in the future. At the same time, the use of special bonds for housing purchase and storage was proposed for the first time, which will help improve the relationship between supply and demand in the housing market.
The incremental fiscal policy balances both promoting development and preventing risks
At the press conference, the Ministry of Finance disclosed the content of a package of targeted incremental policy measures that will be launched in the near future, including: strengthening support for local governments to resolve government debt risks, increasing debt quotas on a large scale, and supporting local governments to resolve hidden debts; issuing special treasury bonds to support large state-owned commercial banks to replenish core Tier 1 capital; Superimpose the use of local government special bonds, special funds, tax policies and other tools to support and promote the real estate market to stop falling and stabilize; and increasing the extent of support and safeguards for key groups.
In this regard, Ji Fuxing, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the main problem facing the current macro economy is the lack of effective demand, and at the same time, the local government is facing multiple problems such as the recession of the real estate market, the prominent debt risk, the "three guarantees" and development pressure.
"A package of targeted incremental policies, focusing on reducing risks, protecting people's livelihood and stabilizing growth, better balances the goals of promoting development and preventing risks, helps stabilize market expectations and confidence of all parties, and is also conducive to stabilizing the macroeconomic market, and laying a solid foundation for the sustained improvement of the economy in the future." Ji Fuxing said.
Ji Fuxing believes that through fiscal and financial coordination, the policy strengthens debt replacement and restructuring, extends interest rate cuts, and alleviates liquidity risks and interest pressures, so that local governments can free up more financial resources to protect people's livelihood and stabilize growth. Supporting large state-owned commercial banks to replenish their core Tier 1 capital through special treasury bonds and improving banks' ability to prevent risks and expand credit on the basis of meeting regulatory standards can better serve the development of the real economy and stimulate investment growth.
"In particular, special bonds, special funds and other financial funds can repurchase the idle land of real estate enterprises, and acquire the stock of commercial housing for affordable housing, which is a major positive for the market and will strongly support and promote the real estate market to stop falling and stabilize." Ji Fuxing said that increasing the support and guarantee for key groups and further consolidating the "three guarantees" expenditure at the grassroots level can stabilize social expectations.
Looking ahead, Ji Fuxing expects that from the perspective of debt instruments, there is a large scale space for both stock and incremental instruments, and in terms of increment, it can not only expand the deficit, increase the issuance of treasury bonds and general bonds, but also increase the government debt limit, such as the issuance of special treasury bonds and local special bonds; From the perspective of fiscal stock tools, we can use the budget stabilization and adjustment fund, revitalize the stock of fiscal funds, increase the payment of profits in specific areas, etc., to make up for financial resources, or reduce taxes and fees structurally. In addition, we can also consider financial discounts, financial subsidies, policy guarantees and other support measures, including strengthening coordination with financial, industrial and other policies.
The use of special bonds to acquire the stock of commercial housing is proposed for the first time
It is worth noting that at this press conference, the Ministry of Finance introduced three considerations related to real estate policies, which mentioned that special bonds are allowed to be used for land reserves, and special bonds are used to purchase stock commercial housing for use as affordable housing in various places. Experts said that the use of special bonds to acquire and store the stock of land and houses will help improve the relationship between supply and demand in the land market and the housing market.
At the press conference, Liao Min, Vice Minister of Finance, said that considering the relatively large amount of idle and undeveloped land in various places, local governments are supported to use special bonds to recycle eligible idle stock land, and areas that are really in need can also be used for new land reserve projects. "This policy can not only regulate the supply and demand relationship of the land market, reduce idle land, enhance the ability to regulate and control land supply, but also help alleviate the liquidity and debt pressure of local governments and real estate enterprises."
The reporter learned that in 2017, the "Measures for the Management of Local Government Land Reserve Special Bonds (Trial)" was issued, which clarified that local government land reserve special bonds are a variety of local government special bonds, which are local government special bonds issued by local governments for land reserves and repaid with the income from the transfer of state-owned land use rights or the income from the state-owned land revenue fund corresponding to the project and included in the budget management of government funds.
"Now that there are limited eligible special bond projects, the resumption of the issuance of special bonds for land reserves will not only help local governments do a good job in reserve projects, but also help stabilize the real estate market." A person in the field of local finance told reporters that after 2017, special bonds for land reserves once accounted for a high proportion of special bonds. However, in 2019, in order to regulate the real estate market and guide special bonds to invest in the infrastructure sector, the executive meeting of the State Council proposed that special bond funds should not be used for land reserves and real estate-related fields. Since then, the issuance of special land reserve bonds has been suspended.
"At the same time, the policy of allowing the use of special bonds to purchase the stock of commercial housing for use as affordable housing in various places is proposed for the first time." The local financial sector said.
Liao Min said that considering that there are relatively many houses that have been built for sale, make good use of special bonds to purchase stock commercial housing for affordable housing in various places, and continue to make good use of the subsidy funds for affordable housing projects, appropriately reduce the scale of new construction, and support local governments to raise more affordable housing by digesting the stock of housing. "Through these two measures, we can not only digest the stock of commercial housing, promote the balance between supply and demand in the real estate market, but also optimize the supply of affordable housing to meet the housing needs of the majority of low- and middle-income people." Liao Min said.
In this regard, Yan Yuejin, vice president of Shanghai Yiju Real Estate Research Institute, believes that from the perspective of historical reform, special bonds are generally not "related to housing", and the only areas in the past are mainly in shantytown reform and land reserves, but they rarely involve in real estate and other subdivisions. This is the first time that the fiscal policy has clarified the support for "digesting the stock and optimizing the increment".
"This kind of acquisition has a positive effect, which not only resolves the inventory risk and pressure of the stock of commercial housing, but also accelerates the mobilization of local government affordable housing." Yan Yuejin expects that the follow-up includes various fields such as placement commercial housing, co-ownership housing, talent housing, public rental housing, resettlement housing, etc., and its land source may be linked to such stock commercial housing to a large extent, which will help to speed up the all-round acceleration of the work of affordable housing. Through the acquisition and storage of stock land and houses, it helps to improve the relationship between supply and demand, less idle land, less idle houses, and the land and houses circulating in the market naturally have room for value boosting, and the relationship between supply and demand is naturally optimized.
Editor: Guo Zhouyang
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