March 3 (Bloomberg) -- China may boost confidence by doubling the nation’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) economic stimulus package at the meeting of the National People’s Congress starting this week, Standard Chartered Bank Plc. said.

“It would be a terrific boon to confidence to announce it at the NPC,” Stephen Green, Shanghai-based head of China research at Standard Chartered, said by phone today.

Another option is to delay an announcement of an increase until later in the year, in case economic conditions deteriorate, Green said.

China is trying to reverse a slump in the world’s third- biggest economy that has cost 20 million jobs after exports collapsed because of the global recession. The nation will “massively” increase government investment in 2009 and expand social security coverage, the Communist Party’s Politburo said Feb. 23.

The NPC, China’s legislature, convenes on March 5 in Beijing. The package of spending announced in November includes roads and houses and runs through 2010. It’s intended to revive an economy that grew 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the weakest pace in seven years.

Officials Green talked to in Beijing last month indicated 8 to 10 trillion yuan of “government-sponsored investment” was possible, the economist said.

China’s stimulus spending likely will rise to 7 or 8 trillion yuan, Sun Mingchun, an economist with Nomura Holdings Inc., said Feb 25. The additional spending would come from programs launched by the central and provincial governments, he said.

Calls today to the news department of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, weren’t immediately answered.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kevin Hamlin in Beijing at khamlin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 3, 2009 01:18 EST