Local governments adding less debt

Local authorities in China are slowing the pace at which they add new debt, Bloomberg reported, citing a report from the National Audit Office released on Monday. Outstanding debt for nine provinces and nine cities grew 3.79% from the end of June last year through March, 7 percentage points slower than the pace in the first half of 2013. China has been trying to rein in local government borrowings that surged to RMB17 trillion (USD2.9 trillion) as of June 2013, posing risks to central government finances. The nine audited provinces still had RMB821 billion in overdue liabilities as of 31 March, even after borrowing RMB57.9 billion to repay maturing debt.