China Said to Plan New Bond Program to Fund Construction

China is planning at least 1 trillion yuan ($161 billion) in bonds, and potentially a multiple of that, to fund construction projects that can help address a struggling economy, according to people familiar with the matter.

Unlike the previous leadership’s reliance on a record surge in local government debt to fund the post-2008 stimulus, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang’s team will use arms of the central government to raise the money. Local authorities are in the midst of a restructuring of their debt, and their constricted financing has seen infrastructure spending slow.