On March 6, the second session of the 14th National People's Congress held an economic-themed press conference in the Media Center Press Conference Hall. Heads of relevant departments answered questions from Chinese and foreign reporters on development and reform, fiscal budget, monetary policy, commerce, financial securities and other issues. Ask questions.
Finance Minister Lan Fo'an said at the meeting that preventing and resolving local government debt risks is a major issue related to development and security, people's livelihood and welfare, and sustainable fiscal operation, and we are also very concerned about it.
In recent years, the Ministry of Finance, together with relevant parties, has resolutely implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, placed risk prevention and promotion of sustainable fiscal development in a prominent position, introduced a series of policies and measures, continuously improved and improved the management of statutory debts of local governments, and actively and steadily resolved local government debts. Hidden debt risks.
In 2023, in accordance with the Party Central Committee’s decision-making and deployment on “effectively preventing and resolving local debt risks and formulating and implementing a package of debt reduction plans”, relevant departments and local party committees and governments at all levels will further increase their work efforts, take more and more practical measures, and achieve achieved positive results.
The Ministry of Finance arranges a certain scale of refinancing government bonds within the local government debt limit space to support local governments, especially high-risk areas, in resolving hidden debts and cleaning up government arrears to corporate accounts, alleviating the pressure of centralized repayment of maturing debts and reducing interest expenses. burden.
In accordance with the principle of "provinces bear overall responsibility, cities and counties will do their best to reduce debts", each locality will base its own efforts on coordinating various resources, formulate debt reduction plans, and specify specific measures one by one.
Through concerted efforts from all parties, local debt risks have been alleviated as a whole.
The repayment of principal and interest on statutory debts of local governments is effectively guaranteed, and the scale of implicit debts is gradually declining; positive progress has been made in the settlement of government arrears to corporate accounts, and the number of local financing platforms has been reduced.
Overall, China's local government debt risks are currently generally controllable.
(Produced by Xu Miaoqiao)
Editor in charge: [Wang Kai]