China Press: Beijing to act against 'hidden' local debt

China’s official newspaper, China Daily, quoted senior government sources on Tuesday, as saying that the country’s government has outlined new guidelines on measuring and controlling “hidden” local government debt.

Key Highlights (via Reuters):

“The new policy document calls on local governments to find out how much off-budget debt has been accumulated over the last three years and to draw up risk control plans, the newspaper said.

Off-budget debt is raised through non-bond channels and is also outside the annual debt quota approved by the central government.

China vowed last week to keep debt levels under control even as it rolls out new economic stimulus measures to offset the impact of trade frictions with the United States.

The last round of inspections ended in 2014 and uncovered 15.7 trillion yuan ($2.28 trillion) in total outstanding local government debt, China Daily said.”