Local government debt level stable in October

BEIJING - China's local government debt level remained stable in October, official data showed Thursday.

By the end of October, outstanding local government debts stood at 18.4 trillion yuan ($2.7 trillion), according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

The figure was up from around 18.3 trillion yuan at the end of September but still below the upper limit of 21 trillion yuan set by the country for this year, data from the MOF showed.

A number of regulations were introduced last year to rein in financial risks as local government debt and corporate leverage increased.

Authorities have taken an array of measures to reduce the local debt burden, including setting debt ceilings for local governments and piloting a debt-for-bond swap program to exchange higher-cost loans with lower-cost bonds.

Thursday's data also showed the value of bonds issued by China's local governments last month totaled 256 billion yuan, down from 748.5 billion yuan in September.

In the first ten months, local governments issued 4.1 trillion yuan of bonds in total. The bonds were issued with an average maturity of six years and an average interest rate of 3.9 percent, the MOF said.