- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
- Alarm grows as Israel and Hezbollah exchange intense fire
- NFL legend Favre reveals Parkinson's diagnosis
- Biden urges world to 'stop arming generals' in Sudan
- Defying experts, Trump vows tariff-driven US economic boom
- Stokes open to England white-ball return
- No peak oil demand 'on the horizon', phaseout a 'fantasy': OPEC
- Sri Lanka's new leftist leader dissolves parliament, calls snap polls
- England scrum-half Mitchell to see specialist on neck injury
- Under-pressure Masood to lead Pakistan in England Tests
- Storm Helene on track to hit Florida as major hurricane
- IOC should reinstate Russia as soon it obeys rules: Samaranch
- Dior unleashes arrows and Amazons at Paris Fashion Week
- San Siro loses 2027 Champions League final due to uncertain future
- Canada's Trudeau faces no-confidence vote
- AI research uncovers 300 ancient etchings in Peru's Nazca desert
- Brazil's Lula calls Security Council makeup 'unacceptable'
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new 'extensive' strikes on Lebanon
- Carey blasts Australia to 304-7 against England in 3rd ODI
- Biden warns against clinging to power in UN farewell
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon
- Biden warns at UN against 'full-scale war' over Lebanon
- 'Monumental step' as Thai king signs same-sex marriage into law
- French lake still riddled with bombs 80 years after World War II
- Alberta Ferretti quits as creative director at brand she founded
- Two killed in Mexico as Hurricane John weakens to tropical storm
- Multiple arrests after US woman uses machine-assisted suicide in Switzerland
- Dubois will next fight Joshua or Usyk, 'whoever pays me the most'
- Stock markets surge on China stimulus
- Lopetegui ready to learn from mistakes as Liverpool loom in League Cup
- US Fed dissenter warns inflation risks remain 'prominent'
- UN chief warns Lebanon on 'brink' as world leaders gather
- Surprise start for Libbok as Etzebeth set for Springboks record
- Ten Hag says expanded schedules make injuries 'almost unavoidable'
- Liverpool boss Slot praises Alexander-Arnold's defensive work
- Barca coach backs Pena but will debate new goalkeeper signing
- UN says tens of thousands flee Lebanon strikes
China's Xi urges 'all-out' infrastructure push to boost growth
Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for an "all-out" campaign to build infrastructure, according to state media, marking the latest attempt by leaders to boost growth in the Covid-battered economy.
Despite struggling to defeat the country's worst outbreak in two years, the leadership is digging in its heels with a strict zero-Covid policy that involves lockdowns in the biggest cities and mass testing.
But the measures have snarled supply chains and hammered business morale, sending shockwaves through the global economy and markets.
"Infrastructure is an important support for economic and social development," Xi said at a high-level meeting on Tuesday, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
China's "infrastructure is still incompatible with the demand for national development and security", the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs said.
The meeting identified several sectors such as transport and energy where an infrastructure boost was needed, including the construction of ports and airports.
Recent lockdowns have clogged supply chains and transport networks -- including in the economic dynamos of Shanghai and Shenzhen as well as the northeastern grain basket of Jilin.
Xi's comments are the latest in a series of statements and steps aimed at boosting confidence in the economy and reassuring markets, but traders remained unmoved by the latest sweeping pledge, while a major spending push could also reignite debt worries.
After the 2008 financial crisis, Beijing launched a stimulus package worth hundreds of billions of dollars -- including massive infrastructure investment -- but that piled on the debt for local governments and state enterprises.
With risks to consumption and manufacturing exports, "initiatives to ramp up infrastructure spending are a direct policy tool to lift government spending", said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
But infrastructure is "not a quick fix", cautioned Nomura chief China economist Ting Lu.
"Lockdowns make the task of ramping up infrastructure investment more difficult due to... travel bans and shortage of construction workers in... (affected) areas," he told AFP.
It would also "be unrealistic to expect much faster infrastructure investment growth, and its pace... would only fill a small part of the gap left by slowing export growth, the large property sector contraction and the rising costs of China's zero-Covid strategy," Nomura had said in a recent report.
M.Odermatt--BTB