The government has announced a Rmb4,000bn ($585bn, €465bn, ￡413bn) investment plan over two years, the bulk of which will be directed at infrastructure projects.

The fiscal stimulus package has some “green” tinges, most notably the commitment to step up the already sizeable investment in rail infrastructure and improvements to the power network. Such plans have even prompted some bold claims: a new report by the HSBC Centre for Climate Change concludes that 34 per cent of China's stimulus package is “green” investment.

However, despite some of the hype, the green credentials of China's fiscal package are difficult to pin down. For a start, four months after the plan was launched there is still considerable confusion about where the money will be spent and how much will be genuine fiscal stimulus. Economists estimate that only a quarter to a third of the headline number will be new spending that would not have taken place anyway. The stimulus plan is “an aspirational target” rather than a detailed blueprint, says Stephen Green, economist at Standard Chartered in Shanghai.