$14.6b, 11 ministries, 110 days to spend

Eleven ministries have been allocated 100 billion yuan (14.65 billion) from the 4-trillion-yuan ($586 billion) economic stimulus package and have to spend the amount before early March, China Business News said yesterday.

"Some ministries have responded more quickly than we expected" to the State Council's stimulus package announced on Sunday, said an official of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planning body.

On Tuesday, the NDRC called an urgent meeting with ministries and local governments to decide how they would share the money.