Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 3 (Reporter Li Yanxia) Vice Minister of Finance Xu Hongcai said at the press conference of the Joint Defense and Joint Control Mechanism of the State Council on the 3rd that as of March 31, 2020, 1.08 trillion yuan of new special bonds were issued across the country The issuance scale increased by 63% year-on-year.
Xu Hongcai said that local government special bonds this year should reflect more requirements to support economic and social development and epidemic prevention and control, reasonably expand the scale, advance the issuance and use schedule, and optimize capital investment. Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Finance has issued some new special bond quotas of RMB 1.29 trillion in 2020.
In terms of capital investment, Xu Hongcai said that it will appropriately expand special bonds on the basis of areas such as transportation infrastructure, energy projects, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, ecological and environmental protection projects, people's livelihood services, cold chain logistics facilities, municipal and industrial park infrastructure, etc. The scope of use lists major national strategic projects separately and provides key support; at the same time, it will increase the transformation of old urban communities and allow local governments to invest in emergency medical treatment, public health, vocational education, urban heating and gas supply and other municipal facilities projects, especially to accelerate 5G network, data center, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and other new infrastructure construction.
He said that the scale of China's government debt has increased somewhat in recent years, but the increase is manageable. As of the end of 2019, China's local government debt was 21.31 trillion yuan, and the local government debt ratio in 2019 was 82.9%, which was lower than the internationally accepted warning standard.
"In addition to the central government debt of 16.8 trillion yuan as of the end of 2019, according to the GDP data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the debt ratio of the national government debt (debt balance / GDP) is 38.5%, which is lower than the EU 60% warning line. It is also lower than the level of major market economies and emerging market countries. At present, China's government debt risk level is generally controllable. "Xu Hongcai said.