中国地方债:成长的烦恼

China Sub-national Debt: Growing Pains

地方债对支持我国地方基础设施建设起到了重要作用。但是,受我国财政体制与政府治理等因素的影响,地方债风险问题逐步凸显。尽管我国通过一系列法规制度建设初步建立了合适的地方债管理体系,近期新型地方融资活动中产生的债务风险问题说明规范地方政府融资行为仍然任重道远。加强资本项目预算管理规范化是当前值得重视的技术手段。发展地方政府债券市场,让市场能真正约束地方债仍需开展按项目发行债券、发展信用评级、拓展市场投资来源等重要工作。地方债问题核心是改变软性预算约束对地方政府带来的不良刺激。深化财政体制改革,完善地方治理,加强地方政府财政自律是控制地方债风险的关键。

Sub-national debt plays an important role in promoting infrastructure financing in China. However,Subnational debt risk problems are emerging as those deficiencies underlying in China fiscal and government system. Although China has gradually constructed a reasonable institutional framework for subnational debt control, new risks identified in recent local financing activities suggest that more tasks to regulate local government financing need to be done. As a technical way, fortifying capital project budget control deserves more considerations. In order to enhance market role in disciplining sub-national financing, China shall further develop its subnational bond market through breaking previous province bond packages into project-based bonds, developing credit assessment market, and diversifying investors. Transform the negative incentive of the soft budget constraint to subnational governments is the key to solve the subnational debt problem. To this end, it is crucial to build self-discipline of subnational governments, which asks for general reform of fiscal system and improving local governance.