中國警告地方政府隱性債務風險
Some local governments are so overstretched that they are struggling to meet their day-to-day operating costs, China’s finance ministry said on Sunday, as it warned on escalating debt risks in the economy.
中國財政部上週日表示，一些地方政府財政過於困難，難以滿足日常運轉開支，並警告中國經濟債務風險上升。Local governments’ fiscal woes come as they face the prospect of either continuing to support highly indebted state-owned enterprises, especially in steel and coal, or allowing them to close and taking on the burden of additional pensions, unemployment benefits and unpaid debt.
在地方政府出現財政困境之際，它們面臨的前景是要麼繼續支持高度負債的國有企業，尤其是在鋼鐵和煤炭行業，要麼讓它們破產並承擔更多養老金、失業補助和未償還債務的負擔。“Imbalances in government revenue and expenditures are becoming more pronounced” in resource-dependent regions, the finance ministry warned in its budget report, issued on Sunday at the annual meeting of the country’s rubber-stamp legislature.
中國財政部上週日在全國人民代表大會的年度會議上發佈預算報告。報告警告稱，在資源能源型地區，政府收支矛盾加劇。
These provinces, many in the north-east, have suffered a population outflow and strained local government budgets thanks to slow deterioration of state-owned heavy industries such as coal, steel and oil.
這些省份很多位於東北地區，它們面臨人口流失，同時由於煤炭、鋼鐵和石油等國有重工業形勢緩慢惡化，地方政府預算吃緊。The higher borrowing has increased “the hidden-debt risks of local governments”, the finance ministry added. “Some township-level governments are having financial difficulty in keeping themselves operating.”
財政部補充稱，舉債增加加大了地方政府的隱性債務風險，一些城鎮政府在保持自身運轉方面出現財政困難。It set a ceiling for local government debt of Rmb11.55tn, up from Rmb10.7tn last year.
預算報告爲地方政府設定的債務上限爲11.55萬億元人民幣，去年爲10.7萬億元人民幣。A four-year downturn in coal and oil prices hit hard in the north-east rust belt and in northern China’s mining heartland, with last year’s annual meeting of the legislature punctuated by mass protests at some of the country’s largest state-owned mines.
煤炭和石油價格連續4年的下跌重創中國東北工業鏽帶以及中國北方礦業中心，在去年兩會期間，中國一些最大國有礦區曾爆發大規模抗議活動。Sharp rises in steel and coal prices later in 2016 have signalled a recovery in the commodities cycle. But China’s excess steel capacity is still contributing to trade frictions while ageing coal mines and oilfields are kept on life support to preserve jobs.
2016年晚些時候鋼鐵和煤炭價格的大幅上漲顯示大宗商品週期回暖。但中國鋼鐵行業的過剩產能仍造成貿易摩擦，同時日益老化的煤礦和油田爲了保持就業依靠財政救濟維持生存。“The biggest issue for us now is the employment issue with relocation from the energy sector,” said Wang Wenya, deputy chief justice in Shanxi province, China’s largest coal producer. She said Shanxi would need other provinces to kick in to meet the estimated Rmb3.4bn needed to retrain or relocate about 22,000 people affected by coal industry closures.
山西省高級人民法院副院長王文婭表示，“我們現在最大的問題是能源業職工再安置帶來的就業問題。”她說，山西省將需要其他省份大力支持，解決受煤礦關閉影響的2.2萬人再培訓或重新安置所需的大約34億元人民幣資金的問題。山西省是中國最大的產煤省份。For this year, China has set a target of reducing steel capacity by 50m tonnes and shuttering 150m tonnes of coal mining capacity. Previous capacity closures have primarily involved non-operational mills. Top-down restrictions on coal mine operations did spur a supply squeeze last summer, fuelling the rapid rise in coal prices that has complicated efforts to keep ageing mines shut.
就今年來說，中國製定了壓減鋼鐵產能5000萬噸、退出煤炭產能1.5億噸的目標。早先關閉的產能主要是已停產煤礦。自上而下的煤礦限產措施在去年夏季的確導致供應緊張，使得煤價迅速上漲，這讓關閉老化礦山的努力更加複雜。Li Keqiang, premier, said China would “suspend or postpone construction on or eliminate” 50m kilowatts of coal-fired power generation this year, indirectly acknowledging the difficulties of tracking capacity shutdown targets.
中國總理李克強表示，今年中國要“淘汰、停建、緩建”煤電產能5000萬千瓦，間接承認了完成產能關閉目標的難度。Late last week, Greenpeace said the pace of approvals for new coal-fired power plants slowed sharply to 1 gigawatt per month in 2016, from 3 gigawatts per week in 2015. In 2016, which saw the slowest pace of approvals in at least 20 years, 22GW of new capacity was authorised for construction in 2016, down from 142GW in 2015.
上週晚些時候，綠色和平(Greenpeace)表示，2016年，新的火電廠獲批速度從2015年的每週3吉瓦急劇放緩至每月1吉瓦。2016年全年僅有22吉瓦的新煤電產能獲批建設，是至少20年來最低的批准速度，遠低於2015年的142吉瓦。
