China orders audit of government debt

BBC ^ | 7/28/13 | Staff

[ruralvoter]

China has ordered a nationwide audit of all government debt, underlining fears that the recent slowdown in its economy may impact the financial sector.

Local governments in China borrowed heavily after the global financial crisis to try to sustain growth rates.

The last audit, published in 2011, showed they had debt of 10.7tn yuan ($1.7tn; £1.1tn) by the end of 2010.

Debt may threaten China's growth, and there are growing fears that local governments may not be able repay.

"In line with a request of the State Council, the National Audit Office (NAO) will organize auditing agencies across the country to carry out an audit of government debt," the national auditor said in a statement on its website.

The NAO said that it had halted all other projects to conduct the audit, but did not give any other details or a timeline for the audit.

[TexGrill]

Thanks for posting an Asia-Pacific thread. Since I’m no longer permitted do the same, here’s my instructions for finding interesting Asia stories. Start first with a Google Search. Google the country names: China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam. After posting a few articles from each country, I recommend going to the world-newspapers.com Asia Web link. Start all over again with country listings, but for the Asia link: I also suggest Asia Times and Channel News Asia, too. This routine normally takes 3-4 hours per day, but after a few days it becomes addictive and you start pondering territorial disputes in the South China Sea, go to bed at night thinking about rice stockpiles in Thailand, look for the latest updates on clam digger gang wars in Vietnam. I wish you the best of luck if you choose to pick up the Asia-Pacific mantle. It’s a fascinating part of the world.

[Rembrandt]

How different is this from Holder investigating Holder?