Club Lunch: China’s Local Government Debt: Saving for a Rainy Day – An Examination of The Sustainability of China’s Local Public Financial Institutions
Speaker: Dr. Yifan Hu
Chief Economist, Haitong International
Visiting Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013
12:45pm – lunch
1:15pm – address
1st Floor
Topic:
China’s Local Government Debt: Saving for a Rainy Day
An Examination of The Sustainability of China’s
Local Public Financial Institutions
Dr. Hu will discuss the levels of local government debt and the sustainability of local public financial institutions in China. The most recent official estimate of the local government debts outstanding was 10.7 trillion Renminbi as of 2010 according to China’s National Audit Office (NAO). The best guess on the overall local government debts equals 40% to 60% of China’s GDP, or nearly 30 trillion Renminbi. With debts and investments at various levels of maturity, the most pressing concern now is not insolvency but liquidity. Are China’s local government debts within a manageable range? Using insights from her recent book, Strategic Priorities: China’s Reforms and the Reshaping of the Global Order, Dr. Hu will address the short-term and long-term measures needed to deal with this sizable level of debt of China’s local governments.
Yifan Hu is Chief Economist and Head of Research at Haitong International in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Haitong International, Dr. Hu was Chief Economist for CITIC Securities International in Hong Kong, Head of Asian Economics for Natixis in Paris, and Vice President and Strategist for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong. Before that, Dr. Hu was Assistant Professor at the School of Business and Economics at the University of Hong Kong and she has been published extensively in international and Chinese academic journals. Additionally, Dr. Hu has worked with the World Bank and KPMG and she is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. She holds a PhD in economics from Georgetown University and a BA (Hons) in economics from Zhejiang University.
