After a whirlwind month, how will China’s Politburo counter Trump’s tariffs?

A meeting of China’s Politburo, expected to be held at the end of this month, is likely to step up the use of existing policy tools rather than immediately roll out a new round of fiscal stimulus in response to the intensified tariff war with the US, analysts said.

Urgent problems created in the wake of the conflict are expected to be at the top of the Politburo’s agenda, they said, alongside expectations for further monetary easing in the second quarter.

“It’s still too early to announce the kind of large-scale stimulus some in the market are hoping for … as the first-quarter data was decent, and a lot could happen in the second quarter,” said Ding Shuang, chief Greater China economist at Standard Chartered Bank.

“So the focus for the April Politburo meeting is more likely to be implementing existing stimulus measures as early and swiftly as possible.”