Local measures needed on debt, president asserts

Local governments and enterprises should take effective measures to deleverage as soon as possible, and a mechanism to coordinate central and local financial regulatory work needs to be established, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.

Forestalling and defusing financial risks, as one of the "three tough battles", is key to ensuring national security, overall development and property safety, and also carries a lot of weight in achieving high-quality growth, said Xi, as he presided over the first meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, urged local governments and enterprises, especially State-owned ones, to achieve a quick deleveraging process, according to a statement issued after the meeting.