China’s local governments will for the first time be allowed to issue municipal bonds independently, according to the detailed final document resulting from the third plenary session.
The report - Decision on major issues concerning comprehensive and far-reaching reforms - released on Friday night, increases the channels through which local governments can raise funds currently Beijing offers such bonds on their behalf and allocates the funds to them.
Beijing's report also attempts to improve the financial transparency of local governments by asking them to release their own fiscal balance sheets, instead of the current government fiscal reports, in an effort to curb their relentless borrowing....