China is expected to unveil a huge support package for the struggling economy Friday as officials wrap up a key meeting eyeing on the possibility of intensified trade tensions with US president-elect Donald Trump.Economists predict Beijing will approve hundreds of billions of dollars of help, with a focus on indebted local governments as well as cash for banks aimed at writing off non-performing loans.Policymakers were keeping tabs on the US vote as they gathered in the Chinese capital this week for a meeting of the country’s top lawmaking body.Trump promised during his campaign of punishing tariffs on Chinese goods that threaten further grief for the world’s second-largest economy, which is already grappling with a prolonged housing crisis and sluggish consumption.Observers say Beijing could seek to cushion that blow with a long-awaited “bazooka stimulus” for the economy — though caution details might still take time.The meeting, originally scheduled for late October, was likely pushed back to allow “policymakers a chance to address a possible Trump win”, Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING, said.”In our view, the odds for a larger policy support package will rise somewhat with a Trump victory,” he added.Trump’s victory is “not necessarily bad for China as this may ‘pressure’ Beijing for a bigger stimulus”, Qi Wang, CIO of UOB Kay Hian Wealth Management, said on X.State media this week reported that officials had reviewed a bill to raise local government debt ceilings.That move, touted last month, would allow authorities to borrow more to fund the acquisition of unused land for development — a move aimed at pulling the property market out of a prolonged slump.Beijing began to unveil a raft of measures in September aimed at boosting economic activity, including rate cuts and the easing of some home purchasing restrictions, but analysts have bemoaned the lack of detail so far.Trump’s re-election provides a need for greater urgency, experts say, though caution may still prevail as officials try to avoid piling on more government debt.”Any potential stimulus size may be bigger, but so is the pressure,” Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis, said.”The market may still not get the economic boosters it wants,” he warned.- ‘Turning point’ -In Beijing on Friday, people acknowledged recent woes but expressed cautious optimism about the future of their country’s economy.Han Xi, a 32-year-old man from Shanxi province in northern China, began a new auditing job in Beijing this week after resigning from his previous company in April.”I have sent out resumes during this period, but you can see it takes more than half a year to get a new job,” Han told AFP, adding that “many companies are laying off employees right now”.”But from a macroeconomic perspective, I’m generally optimistic,” Han added.”Even though we’re still in a downturn cycle, I think we are close to the turning point, though we haven’t quite reached it yet.”Guo Hailong, a 35-year-old from the northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, told AFP on Friday that his Beijing noodle shop was receiving noticeably fewer customers.But he told AFP that he was confident in Chinese leaders’ ability to effectively steer the economy through its current headwinds.”We just do our business well, provide good service, produce good products and ensure quality,” Guo said.”We can’t do anything if customers don’t come to eat.”China’s Premier Li Qiang this week said he was “fully confident” that the country would hit its growth target of around five percent for 2024, even after figures showed the economy saw its slowest expansion in a year and a half during the third quarter.And in a rare bright spot, data Thursday showed the nation’s exports surged last month at their fastest pace in more than two years.But Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, warned “we cannot rely on exports to carry China’s economy”. 

Asian equities extended gains Friday, tracking another Wall Street record after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and on the prospect of market-friendly policies from a Trump administration.Traders are also keenly awaiting the end of a week-long meeting of key Chinese officials who have been hammering out a major stimulus package for the world’s number two economy with an eye on the US election result.While there are concerns that another four years of Donald Trump could see a rise in tensions between Beijing and Washington, investors are optimistic that his plans to slash taxes and push through more deregulation will boost companies’ bottom lines.There are also worries that the Republican’s policies could stoke inflation again, dealing a blow to the Fed’s long-running battle against prices.But central bank boss Jerome Powell added to the upbeat mood Thursday by insisting that the outcome of this week’s vote would have no impact on policymakers’ decision-making, adding that they would make their decisions based on data.After the policy board cut rates 25 basis points to 4.50-4.75 percent, as expected following September’s 50-point reduction, Powell said: “We don’t guess, we don’t speculate, and we don’t assume.”The Fed’s post-meeting statement said that “labour market conditions have generally eased” since earlier in the year and noted progress in bringing inflation down to its two percent target. Traders are now trying to ascertain the outlook for another cut in December.”With Powell squarely focused on labour, the combination of an inflation rate now in the realm of the Fed’s target means it can easily justify further cuts,” said Robert Tipp and Tom Porcelli at PGIM Fixed Income.”Although uncertainty abounds, the Fed’s year-end 2025 forecast for a Fed funds rate of 3.5 percent is still a useful starting point for where this cycle is going.”On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied again to hit fresh records, helped by strong performances by tech titans Apple, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook’s Meta.Asia took up the baton in early trade, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Wellington and Jakarta all higher heading into the weekend.On currency markets, the dollar edged up slightly against the yen after dropping in reaction to the Fed cut.Investors are eyeing the outcome of the week-long gathering in Beijing of officials working to hash out a stimulus to kickstart China’s economy.Economists expect lawmakers to approve hundreds of billions of dollars in extra budget, with a lot of focus on helping indebted local governments as well as cash for banks, aimed at writing off non-performing loans over the past four years.The meeting comes amid uncertainty about the outlook for China after the election of Trump, who warned during his campaign that he would hit imports from the country with huge tariffs of up to 60 percent.”On balance, it is likely that Trump’s electoral victory presents additional downward pressure to China’s growth in the next few years (depending on various policy responses in both the US and China),” said National Australia Bank’s Gerard Burg.However, Michael Hewson at MCH Market Insights, added: “There is a sense of déjà vu with respect to Donald Trump winning the US presidential election, both politically as well as from a market point of view.”On the one hand we have some serious hand-wringing going on as some parts of the political spectrum go into a collective pearl-clutching meltdown at the prospect of four years of unfettered Trumpism.”As far as the markets are concerned the response has been more tempered to the one we observed eight years ago, when the volatility was much more pronounced.”- Key figures around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,515.36 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.6 percent at 21,084.10Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 3,490.75Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0789 from $1.0801 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2975 from $1.2985Dollar/yen: UP at 153.00 yen from 152.92 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.15 pence from 83.18 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.5 percent at $72.00 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $75.35 per barrelNew York – Dow: FLAT at 43,729.34 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3 percent at 8,140.74 (close)

Venerated as incarnations of Hindu deities, India’s sacred cows are also being touted as agents of energy transition by a government determined to promote biogas production to cut its dependence on coal.It is an understatement to say that Nakul Kumar Sardana is proud of his new plant at Barsana, in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state.Firstly, says the vice-president of a biomass joint venture between India’s Adani Group and France’s TotalEnergies, because it occupies “one of the holiest sites in the world”.A four-hour drive south of the smog-filled capital New Delhi, among fields bristling with brickyard smokestacks, the small town of Barsana welcomes pilgrims who come to honour the Hindu goddess Radha.But Sardana is also proud because his methanisation plant that opened in March is the “most technologically advanced and the largest biogas facility” in India.It was built in Barsana to be as close as possible to its raw fuel — cattle dung and harvest stubble.”This region is home to a million cows,” he said. “Their dung has been used as fuel for centuries in cooking”.Cows have been blamed for contributing to global warming because they produce methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — in their manure or when they belch.But in this case, the region is finding a creative use for the waste produced by the cattle, which are used for their milk. Eating them is taboo for many Hindus. Stalks left behind after the rice harvest — that would otherwise be burned — join the slurry.”Farmers are traditionally burning them, creating smog and pollution”, he added.”In using natural waste, we are not only producing compressed biogas, but also high-quality organic fertiliser.”Long lines of tractors dump dung and straw in the factory’s tanks, from which 10 tonnes of gas and 92 tonnes of fertiliser are produced each day.- ‘Convert waste’ -In its endless quest for power to fuel its economic growth, the world’s most populous nation — and third-largest fossil fuel polluter —  has pushed biogas to achieve a much-promised transition to carbon neutrality by 2070.In 2018, the government set itself an ambitious goal of building 5,000 biogas plants in six years.But despite generous subsidies and the introduction of a buyback guarantee, the project attracted little initial interest — until the government forced the hand of producers. From April 2025, at least one percent of liquid gas fuelling both vehicles and for domestic use must be biogas — rising to five percent by 2028.That prompted a response from key players, starting with billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani — both close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — eying lucrative public contracts.Ambani promised his Reliance group would build 55 biogas plants by the end of 2025 to convert “food producers to energy producers” and generate 30,000 jobs.His rival Adani plans to invest around $200 million in the sector in the next three to five years.”The government is pushing to convert waste for the wealth of the country,” said Suresh Manglani, CEO of Adani Total Gas.The International Energy Agency (IEA) says both China and India are leading global growth in bioenergy, seen as one solution to mitigate global heating.Even though biofuel remains more expensive than conventional gas, Indian production is expected to grow by 88 percent by 2030, it predicts.Biogas is considered a clean energy because the waste used to produce it is completely natural, said Suneel Pandey of The Energy and Resources Institute.It is “a sustainable solution to make wealth from waste,” he told AFP.- ‘Potential is huge’ -But the contribution of biogas to India’s transition away from heavily polluting coal — currently fuelling nearly 70 percent of electricity — will be relatively small.India plans to more than double the share of gas in its energy mix — from six to 15 percent by 2030.But the bulk of that will be liquefied natural gas (LNG), with Adani and TotalEnergies opening an LNG port on India’s eastern coast at Dhamra.Burning gas to produce electricity also releases damaging emissions, although less than coal and oil.Total argues its backing of biogas is more about environmental responsibility than commercial opportunity.”Biogas goes way beyond figures and business plans,” said Sangkaran Ratnam, TotalEnergies chairman and managing director for India.”It has also a tremendously positive knock-on effect on the rural communities in terms of jobs, in terms of care for the environment, and alternative forms of income.” Tejpreet Chopra, head of renewable energy company Bharat Light and Power, said the biogas market is “small in the big picture of things” but the “potential is huge”.But the investments required are vast. The Barsana plant cost $25 million, while the price of biogas remains uncompetitive: $14 per cubic metre, compared to $6 for LNG.Yet Sardana remains more convinced than ever that biogas is key.”We will learn the nuts and bolts of it and improve all processes,” he said. “We stop wasting energy, we create rural jobs, and we are contributing to a more sustainable environment.”