China issued 3.5608 billion yuan of new special bonds from January to September

China News Service, Beijing, October 23 (Reporter Zhao Jianhua) China's Ministry of Finance announced on the 23rd that from January to September, a total of 3.5608 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) of new special bonds were issued nationwide. Among them, 633.9 billion yuan was issued in September, an increase of 214.8 billion yuan compared with the same period last year, and issuance accelerated significantly.

At a press conference held in Beijing on the 23rd, Zhao Zeyong, deputy director of the Debt Management Department of the Ministry of Finance of China, said that new bond issuance has steadily accelerated and its use has become more focused. All localities focus on local development strategies and advantageous industries, give priority to ensuring the funding needs of projects under construction and continuation, and focus on the construction of infrastructure and people's livelihood projects such as municipal and industrial parks, transportation, affordable housing projects, and urban renewal, effectively giving full play to the policy effectiveness of special bonds to benefit people's livelihood, promote investment, and make up for shortcomings.

At the same time, implicit debt replacement has achieved remarkable results. From January to September, a total of 1.8977 billion yuan of special bonds were issued nationwide to replace existing implicit debts, completing 95% of the annual limit. So far, the issuance progress of 6 trillion yuan to replace the implicit debt limit has reached 98.3%. Zhao Zeyong said that the implementation of the replacement policy has brought "timely rain" to prevent and resolve local government debt risks. It has not only greatly reduced debt interest expenses, but also freed up more financial resources for local governments to use for the "three guarantees" and urgently needed development undertakings.

Recently, China's Ministry of Finance arranged to use 550 billion yuan of local government debt balance limits to improve counties and districts' general public budget security capabilities and support local governments to expand effective investment. Zhao Zeyong introduced that after the Ministry of Finance issued the balance limit, all localities closely followed the policy requirements, promptly decomposed and issued them, and accelerated various preliminary work. Guangdong and Sichuan respectively disclosed that they plan to use the balance limit to issue special bonds of 36.1 billion yuan and 10 billion yuan next week for the construction of projects in key areas. In the future, relevant provinces will continue to issue them, and the policy effects will gradually appear.

At the press conference, Zhao Zeyong also introduced that in recent years, under the authorization of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and with the consent of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance will issue in advance the new local government debt limit for the next year in the fourth quarter of each year. The Ministry of Finance will do a good job in issuing some new local government debt limits in 2027 in advance, and guide various localities to plan and prepare early to ensure that bond issuance starts as early as possible in January next year.