MNI China Press Digest, Dec 27: Local Bonds, Household Lending

     BEIJING (MNI) - The following lists highlights from the Chinese press for

Thursday:

     Some provincial and municipal governments are planning to issue bonds as

early as January, sooner than in the previous years, said Shanghai Securities

Journal today citing an anonymous official at a local finance department.

Issuing in advance may help accelerate the expansion of new bonds and support

local finances, the newspaper said. Though the specific issuance quota and

timing need approvals by the Finance Ministry, the scale of local government

bonds is expected to expand for the year ahead, the newspaper said citing the

official.

     Household lending should not be encouraged to further expand sharply, as

the high leverage ratio of Chinese residents has become an increasing risk, said

The Paper on Wednesday night citing Li Yang, the chairman of National

Institution for Finance & Development(NIFD). The leverage ratio among residents

has increased to 52.2% in the third quarter of 2018, from 49% in 2017, with the

total debt by households increasing to CNY46.2 trillion, The Paper said.

     Replenishing China commercial banks' capital will help boost lending,

better support the real economy, ease the financing difficulty of private and

small companies, as well as crack down the shadow banking, said Economic Daily

today citing Ma Jun, a member of the PBOC's Monetary Policy Committee following

the central bank's statement yesterday on the plan to launch the issuance of

perpetual bonds to help banks replenish capital. The measure will also increase

banks' capacity to resist risks and expand credits, which will boost confidence

in the capital markets, especially for banking stocks, the Daily said citing Ma.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: wanxia.lin@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 10 8532 5998; email: william.bi@mni-news.com

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