The government is pursuing a more proactive fiscal policy in 2016 with a budget deficit of 2.2 trillion yuan, which is 560 billion yuan more from last year. The fiscal deficit will account for 3 percent of 2016 gross domestic product, to ensure a “reasonable range” of growth in a year that is expected to see more economic challenges.
China will continue to spend heavily on infrastructure. Nationwide spending on railway construction would exceed 800 billion yuan, with road-building investment topping 1.7 trillion yuan. 20 mega hydraulic engineering projects would come into construction.
The government is also expected to create more than 10 million urban jobs this year. This target is the same as 2015, during which over 13 million jobs were actually created. And urban registered unemployment ratio is projected to be at 4.5 percent, against the actual 4.1 percent in 2015.