China will conduct an urgent audit of all government debt, underlining concerns over rising financial risks in the world’s second-biggest economy.
The National Audit Office said in a one-line statement yesterday that it had been instructed by the state council, China’s cabinet, to come up with a tally of how much money is owed by all levels of government, from villages up to central authorities.
A separate article on the website of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist party, said the state council had called for the audit on Friday afternoon and that it had ordered the national audit office to halt other projects to start on the debt tally immediately.