China To Clamp Down On Rogue Local Finances

China’s Communist Party signaled a bigger focus on fiscal concerns during President Xi Jinping’s tenure, setting the scene for a clampdown to control the finances of indebted regional authorities.

Local governments will be able to sell bonds to fund construction and officials will be rated on measures including borrowing levels, the party said Nov. 15. An easing of the one-child policy and extra land rights for farmers also featured in the biggest package of reforms since at least the 1990s.

Tightening control over local finances and allowing new channels for funding would limit the risk of a debt crisis hobbling the world’s second-biggest economy, while corruption arrests since Xi became party chief may signal that officials ignore directives at their peril. The scale of regional debt woes is set to be shown in an audit that the Finance Ministry said was due last month although it has yet to be released.

Bloomberg

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