中国警告地方政府隐性债务风险

Some local governments are so overstretched that they are struggling to meet their day-to-day operating costs, China’s finance ministry said on Sunday, as it warned on escalating debt risks in the economy.

中国财政部上周日表示，一些地方政府财政过于困难，难以满足日常运转开支，并警告中国经济债务风险上升。

Local governments’ fiscal woes come as they face the prospect of either continuing to support highly indebted state-owned enterprises, especially in steel and coal, or allowing them to close and taking on the burden of additional pensions, unemployment benefits and unpaid debt.

在地方政府出现财政困境之际，它们面临的前景是要么继续支持高度负债的国有企业，尤其是在钢铁和煤炭行业，要么让它们破产并承担更多养老金、失业补助和未偿还债务的负担。

“Imbalances in government revenue and expenditures are becoming more pronounced” in resource-dependent regions, the finance ministry warned in its budget report, issued on Sunday at the annual meeting of the country’s rubber-stamp legislature.

中国财政部上周日在全国人民代表大会的年度会议上发布预算报告。报告警告称，在资源能源型地区，政府收支矛盾加剧。

These provinces, many in the north-east, have suffered a population outflow and strained local government budgets thanks to slow deterioration of state-owned heavy industries such as coal, steel and oil.

这些省份很多位于东北地区，它们面临人口流失，同时由于煤炭、钢铁和石油等国有重工业形势缓慢恶化，地方政府预算吃紧。

The higher borrowing has increased “the hidden-debt risks of local governments”, the finance ministry added. “Some township-level governments are having financial difficulty in keeping themselves operating.”

财政部补充称，举债增加加大了地方政府的隐性债务风险，一些城镇政府在保持自身运转方面出现财政困难。

It set a ceiling for local government debt of Rmb11.55tn, up from Rmb10.7tn last year.

预算报告为地方政府设定的债务上限为11.55万亿元人民币，去年为10.7万亿元人民币。

A four-year downturn in coal and oil prices hit hard in the north-east rust belt and in northern China’s mining heartland, with last year’s annual meeting of the legislature punctuated by mass protests at some of the country’s largest state-owned mines.

煤炭和石油价格连续4年的下跌重创中国东北工业锈带以及中国北方矿业中心，在去年两会期间，中国一些最大国有矿区曾爆发大规模抗议活动。

Sharp rises in steel and coal prices later in 2016 have signalled a recovery in the commodities cycle. But China’s excess steel capacity is still contributing to trade frictions while ageing coal mines and oilfields are kept on life support to preserve jobs.

2016年晚些时候钢铁和煤炭价格的大幅上涨显示大宗商品周期回暖。但中国钢铁行业的过剩产能仍造成贸易摩擦，同时日益老化的煤矿和油田为了保持就业依靠财政救济维持生存。

“The biggest issue for us now is the employment issue with relocation from the energy sector,” said Wang Wenya, deputy chief justice in Shanxi province, China’s largest coal producer. She said Shanxi would need other provinces to kick in to meet the estimated Rmb3.4bn needed to retrain or relocate about 22,000 people affected by coal industry closures.

山西省高级人民法院副院长王文娅表示，“我们现在最大的问题是能源业职工再安置带来的就业问题。”她说，山西省将需要其他省份大力支持，解决受煤矿关闭影响的2.2万人再培训或重新安置所需的大约34亿元人民币资金的问题。山西省是中国最大的产煤省份。

For this year, China has set a target of reducing steel capacity by 50m tonnes and shuttering 150m tonnes of coal mining capacity. Previous capacity closures have primarily involved non-operational mills. Top-down restrictions on coal mine operations did spur a supply squeeze last summer, fuelling the rapid rise in coal prices that has complicated efforts to keep ageing mines shut.

就今年来说，中国制定了压减钢铁产能5000万吨、退出煤炭产能1.5亿吨的目标。早先关闭的产能主要是已停产煤矿。自上而下的煤矿限产措施在去年夏季的确导致供应紧张，使得煤价迅速上涨，这让关闭老化矿山的努力更加复杂。

Li Keqiang, premier, said China would “suspend or postpone construction on or eliminate” 50m kilowatts of coal-fired power generation this year, indirectly acknowledging the difficulties of tracking capacity shutdown targets.

中国总理李克强表示，今年中国要“淘汰、停建、缓建”煤电产能5000万千瓦，间接承认了完成产能关闭目标的难度。

Late last week, Greenpeace said the pace of approvals for new coal-fired power plants slowed sharply to 1 gigawatt per month in 2016, from 3 gigawatts per week in 2015. In 2016, which saw the slowest pace of approvals in at least 20 years, 22GW of new capacity was authorised for construction in 2016, down from 142GW in 2015.

上周晚些时候，绿色和平(Greenpeace)表示，2016年，新的火电厂获批速度从2015年的每周3吉瓦急剧放缓至每月1吉瓦。2016年全年仅有22吉瓦的新煤电产能获批建设，是至少20年来最低的批准速度，远低于2015年的142吉瓦。