The incremental fiscal policies announced by China's Ministry of Finance on Saturday will effectively promote people's livelihood and stabilize the housing market amid the country's countercyclical regulation process, said financial experts on Saturday.
At a press conference in Beijing on Saturday, officials of the Ministry of Finance expounded on various supportive fiscal measures including issuing funding subsidies for groups in need, promoting affordable housing, and strengthening guarantee measures at grassroots level.
Experts said that one of the main challenges facing China's current economic recovery is insufficient consumer demand, and improving people's livelihood and increasing residents' disposable income are the important ways to expand domestic demand for economic rebound.
"In the past, when we talked about the active fiscal policies, we usually meant increasing the investment in infrastructure. This time, we also made some attempts in consumption to increase their spending power," said Zhu Qing, chief professor of the Institute of Public Finance and Taxation at Renmin University.
"As we have noticed, incremental fiscal policies not only play a role in countercyclical regulation on the macro economy, this policy also focuses on improving people's livelihood amid the regulation process. Finance is the foundation and an important pillar of national governance, which is reflected in many aspects. Its role in improving people's livelihood has also been fully reflected in these incremental fiscal policies," said Yang Zhiyong, director of the Center for Public Finance and Taxation Research at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Regarding the housing sector, experts said that land transfer income is one of the important incomes for local governments, and housing and people's livelihood are closely related, therefore stabilizing the housing market is crucial to the sounding development of national economy.
"The Ministry of Finance encourages local governments to appropriately purchase and store some houses as affordable housing by issuing special bonds, and to purchase and store land within an appropriate range. This will play an important role in ensuring the stability of the real estate industry, especially in stopping the decline and stabilizing housing prices," said Qiao Baoyun, dean of China Academy of Public Finance and Public Policy under Central University of Finance and Economics.
China's incremental fiscal polices to effectively promote livelihood, stabilize housing market: experts
"Political games" between the U.S. federal and state governments are hindering the progress of disaster relief efforts following hurricanes that hit the southeast U.S. state of Florida.
Hurricane Milton made landfall on October 9 on Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category three storm, bringing powerful winds, a dangerous storm surge and potential flooding to many areas of the state. It came just two weeks after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the state, destroying coastal communities.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said the Milton had maximum sustained winds of 205 kph when it struck Siesta Key on Florida's west coast at 20:30.
More than 130 tornado warnings associated with the storm were issued by the National Weather Service.
Officials have confirmed at least 16 fatalities related to the storm.
Local residents are struggling to recover from the disaster.
"It's a big mess. We still had the trash that was not picked up, so that had a lot of projectiles flying around. We had some flooding, lost some roofs, hopefully no loss of life. We're just out here assessing the situation, helping clean out the road and seeing what we can take care of," said Michael Holderness, a business owner in Florida.
Holderness added that while his community has been devastated, things might have been worse.
"It's pretty bad, it's pretty bad. It looks like some areas have taken it harder than others on Siesta Key, But yeah, I'm probably a little relieved," he sadi.
The clean-up operation after Milton for local residents in Florida could take many weeks or months, as the state was one of many hit by Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago.
Despite the casualties and economic losses, American politicians are shifting blame, hindering the communication between the federal and state governments.
According to media reports, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refused to take a phone call from Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris following Hurricane Helene.
However, DeSantis has claimed that Harris had never actually called during the hurricane. He alleged that Harris had shown no interest in hurricanes since assuming the role of Vice President and that her sudden concern was merely for political gain. He said that he had no time to engage in "political games" with Harris.
Meanwhile, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the budget for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for both on-the-ground response efforts and distribution of relief funds, won't last through hurricane season.
As reported by Scientific American, within the first eight days of the 2025 fiscal year starting on October 1, FEMA had already spent nearly half of its budget for the entire fiscal year.
A Florida resident impacted by the storms said that he has not received any aid from FEMA, even after going through a complicated application process.
"I haven't gotten any (federal relief aid). I heard that people here can apply to FEMA and they'll offer something. I tried to apply, but I don't really know. They had like a bunch of verification steps and they kind of just kicked me back to the front. I think it's probably just so overwhelmed with people trying to apply. It's maybe their system not working right now, but I haven't gotten any aid personally," said Eden Jackson, Florida resident.
Since last October, President Joe Biden has been requesting that Congress increase funding for FEMA but has faced obstruction from Republicans, even though the Republican Party currently governs states that were heavily impacted by Hurricane Helene, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Last week, Biden reiterated his readiness to convene an emergency meeting to secure additional funding from Congress for disaster relief efforts.
However, Politico reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, has refused to hold a vote on the funding proposal before the election.
"Politicization of disasters" impedes progress of disaster relief efforts in Florida
