中國出重拳預防地方債務風險

Following rising concern over local government debt, China floated a four-grade emergency plan last Monday that could mean "fiscal re-balancing."

隨着地方政府性債務引發的擔憂日益加劇，我國於上週一推出四級應急預案，這可能意味着財政重整。

With Grade I being the most serious, classification involves the nature and impact of any incident, according to the State Council announcement.

根據國務院發佈的聲明，分級根據債務風險事件的性質和影響來確定，I級最爲嚴重。

"We should make it clear that no crisis has ever occurred. The plan is more like a barrier against risk," said Zhao Quanhou, director of the financial research office of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science at the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

財政部財政科學研究所金融研究室主任趙全厚表示：“我們應該清楚，沒有發生過任何危機。這個計劃更像是一個抵禦風險的屏障。”

The city and county governments will fiscally re-balance if their annual interest payment on general debt is 10 percent higher than its public spending budget, or if interest on special debts is 10 percent more than its government fund budget.

市縣政府年度一般債務付息支出超過一般公共預算支出10%的，或者專項債務付息支出超過政府性基金預算支出10%的，必須啓動財政重整計劃。

"The fiscal rebalancing act is actually a rearrangement of government budgets. It is different from debt restructuring or a government bankruptcy plan," said Zhang Bin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS).

中國社會科學院的研究員張斌表示：“財政平衡法案實際上是對政府預算的一個重新安排。它不同於債務重組或政府破產計劃。”

The central government will not become involved in bailouts and local government officials involved in graded incidents will be held accountable.

中央政府將不參與救助，涉及IV級以上風險事件的地方政府官員將被追責。