China lays out ground rules to tackle local debt mess

Beijing

MORE than six years after China unleashed a record credit boom to shore up growth in the grip of the biggest global financial crisis since the 1930s, policymakers are starting to address the shaky financing that resulted.

In a template that could be expanded, regulators laid out ground rules for local governments to swap high-yielding, short-term loans for lower-cost, longer-term municipal debt.