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Bonds worth nearly 4 trillion yuan issued by local gov'ts: official

Xinhua, August 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Local Chinese governments issued a total of 3.97 trillion yuan (about 590 billion U.S. dollars) of bonds in the first seven months of 2016, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Wednesday.

New bonds stood at more than 1.01 trillion yuan, while the remainder were converted from outstanding debt via a bond-for-debt swap program, Lou said while reporting to the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

The funds raised were mainly used in poverty relief, renovating buildings, road construction and other public projects, Lou said.

Local governments have accelerated bond issues to raise more funds for construction projects. About 3.8 trillion yuan of such bonds were issued last year.

Fully aware of debt risks, central authorities have put a cap of 1.18 trillion yuan for new bonds in 2016, and asked local governments to convert outstanding debt to bonds. Endi