Investors paying attention to Beijing pronouncements could be forgiven for thinking that the world’s second-biggest economy had already embarked on an enormous stimulus programme to boost rapidly cooling growth.

This week alone, the cities of Tianjin and Chongqing each unveiled plans for investments of Rmb1.5tn ($236bn) in large industries such as petrochemicals, automobiles, electronics and advanced equipment over the next few years. The central government also chimed in, announcing a plan on Tuesday involving Rmb2.4tn of investment in energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction by 2015. There have been a dozen other smaller investment packages disclosed by local governments in the past couple of weeks but these three initiatives alone, if taken at face value, would already dwarf the Rmb4tn economic stimulus package that Beijing launched in November 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis.

So why are independent analysts and economists so dismissive of suggestions that the country is poised for another explosion in infrastructure spending like that seen in 2009 and 2010?