Finance minister: Local govt debt risk controllable

Positive progress has been made in clearing government arrears owned to enterprises, said finance minister Lan. — China Daily

BEIJING: Local government debt risk in China is controllable, and the country will accelerate the construction of a government debt-management mechanism so that the debt risk will be solved as the country marches toward high-quality development, a senior official says.

Finance Minister Lan Fo’an told a news conference on the sidelines of the ongoing two sessions that thanks to joint efforts from relevant parties and the implementation of a package of solutions for defusing local government debt risk, the payment of principal and interest on the local government statutory debt is well secured, and the scale of local government implicit debt has gradually decreased.