In Depth: Chinese Local Governments’ Latest Effort to Tackle ‘Hidden Debt’

Nine provincial-level governments across China plan to raise a combined 410 billion yuan ($56 billion) through special bonds to swap their hidden liabilities, bringing them onto the books, as Beijing pushes ahead with its plans to tackle localities’ trillions of dollars of implicit debt.

The amount of these special refinancing bonds being sold by each government varies considerably, from Qinghai province issuing 9.6 billion yuan in new notes to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region printing 106.7 billion yuan worth, according to information published as of Wednesday on ChinaBond, an official platform for bond registration.