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China Provinces Aim for 2025 Growth with Higher Debt and Central Support
China’s local and regional governments (LRGs) have budgeted for slight improvements in their 2025 revenue, with the gap between revenue and expenditure growth to be bridged by higher central government support and debt issuance, says Fitch Ratings. LRGs’ 2025 budgeted growth rates in operating and capital revenue are 3% and 0.1%, respectively, higher than the actual performance of 1.7% and -13.5% growth in 2024. Capex growth is budgeted to be 17.9% in 2025, supported by a higher new Special Purpose Bond (SPB) quota of CNY4.4 trillion and higher central transfers of CNY1.27 trillion, the latter up by 106% from ... (full story)