China has raised export tax rebates on toys, textiles and more than 3,000 other products, moving ahead on promises to counter a slump that is forcing many factories that produce for overseas markets out of business.

The export tax rebate on clothing and textiles will be raised to 14 per cent from the current 13 per cent, the Ministry of Finance said in a notice posted Tuesday on its website.

The tax rebate on toys also will be raised to 14 per cent, from the current 11 per cent, it said.

The changes, which affect 3,486 types of products, or about one-quarter of all exports listed by customs authorities, take effect November 1, the ministry said.

Most of the hikes raise tax rebates to between 9 per cent and 13 per cent. Products named in the list included everything from AIDS medications and steel wire used for appliances, to some types of plastics and machinery.

China's export tax rebates date back more than 20 years to when the government began using them as an incentive for investment in export industries.

The hikes are part of a series of measures, most of them still not announced, that leaders say will be rolled out to help manufacturers weather falling orders and rising costs amid the world credit crisis.

Thousands of factories have already closed down, leaving workers without jobs or pay checks, especially in thin-margin, labor-intensive industries like toys, clothing and small appliances.

Toy makers have been especially hard-hit, with costs rising 60 per cent since 2006 while contract prices rose only by an average of 10 per cent, according to Toy Industry Association figures published Tuesday in the state-run newspaper China Daily.

In July, the government raised rebates of value-added taxes on exports of textiles and clothing by 2 percentage points to 13 per cent.

China's economic growth in the third-quarter fell to 9 per cent from 10.4 per cent in the first half of the year and 10.9 per cent in 2007. While still strong, it was the slowest in five years.

Slumping demand for exports has barely registered in trade figures; China's surplus for September rose to a new monthly record of $US29.3 billion ($A41.58 billion) thanks to falling costs for crude oil and other commodities.

In July 2007, when the focus was on encouraging a shift out of low-tech industries and soothing its trading partners, Beijing slashed rebates on some 2,800 export products.

Unable to do much about the malaise spreading through major economies as they grapple with the fallout from the mortgage-debt crisis, China seems set to spend its way out of a slowdown.

State media reports say the government plans to boost spending on construction of basic infrastructure such as roads and public housing, as well as the rebuilding of the region devastated by the May 12 earthquake in central China.

The threshold for personal income tax, now set at 4,800 yuan (approximately $A993) may be raised further, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported Tuesday.

Taxes on housing transactions and restrictions on lending for such purchases are among other moves to support the real estate sector, which has languished in recent months.

Those moves follow a series of interest rate cuts and reductions on reserve requirements aimed at coaxing banks to lend more to the corporate sector.