China has no plan to issue national vouchers as part of its economic stimulus plan, but Vice Finance Minister Liao Xiaojun encouraged local governments to use them to help spur consumption, the Beijing News reported on Sunday.
With Chinas export markets withering and economic growth slowing rapidly from 13 percent in 2007 to last years seven-year low of 9 percent, Beijing has launched a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package to reverse the slowdown.
But the latest comments, on the sidelines of the national legislative meeting in Beijing, highlight the limits to the role of the central government, which aims to spend only 30 percent of the package by itself, expecting to catalyse the rest from local governments, and state-owned banks and companies.
"China will not issue a national consumption voucher", Liao told the paper, but he added that Beijing had no objections to local governments issuing vouchers to spur spending on tourism or shopping. "Local governments may do so according to suitable local conditions."
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