China Reality Check Series: China's Local Government Debt
Featuring:
Nicholas R. Lardy
Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow,
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Derek M. Scissors
Resident Scholar,
American Enterprise Institute
Moderated by:
Christopher K. Johnson
CSIS Senior Adviser and Freeman Chair in China Studies
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 | 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
First Floor Conference Room,
CSIS 1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036
China’s National Audit Office recently released its long-awaited report in response to the State Council's instruction in July that it conduct an "emergency audit" of Chinese public debt. The report, which had been expected months earlier, announced a figure of nearly $3 trillion in accumulated local government debt, a nearly 70% increase from the last audit in 2010. Identified as one of the six key priority areas of economic work for 2014 at last month's Central Economic Work Conference, the Chinese leadership clearly sees managing the local debt problem as one of the issues it must tackle as part of its reinvigorated reform push. Our panelists will dig deep to get behind the numbers and examine the broader implications of the debt audit for the overall health of China's economy. We hope you can join us for this very timely discussion marking our 2014 inaugural China Reality Check event.
