Local governments look offshore for funding

Local governments’ financing firms have begun to seek overseas investment, with that of the east-coast city of Qingdao set to meet with international bond investors this week, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources. Such firms, set up to skirt a 1994 ban on local-government bond issuance, sold the lowest amount of onshore yuan notes in 17 months in January after the State Council said in October they could no longer raise funds for local authorities and that governments needn’t repay debt not raised for public projects.