Bloomberg News China’s economic slowdown is putting the spotlight back on fiscal stimulus — but Beijing isn’t opening the spending taps just yet. While the U.S. government is pushing to raise its debt ceiling and countries elsewhere keep fiscal policy loose to support their pandemic-hit economies, China could be on track for a much smaller budget deficit than targeted, or even its first balanced budget in about four decades. The pullback wasn’t a big problem earlier in the year, when the economy was rebounding strongly, but with the economy now being hit from several sides, the lack of fiscal support has become a glaring issue. Tighter fiscal policy is partly driven by Beijing’s push to cut wasteful spending and reduce debt among local governments in order to lower financial risks across the economy. On top of that, stress in the property market is curbing land sales, a key source […]