Debt at the local level continues to bother Chinese experts.

Several provincial audit watchdogs have warned of the risks of hidden debts when releasing reports on local governments’ fiscal conditions for 2018.

The audit offices of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Henan provinces raised concerns over poor management at lower levels of hidden debts, including slow debt repayment, insufficient repayment capability, and miscalculation of debts.

In recent years, Beijing has been urging local governments to clean up the mountain of off-balance-sheet debt taken on by themselves and their financing vehicles since the global financial crisis a decade ago. In general, local authorities should convert the hidden debt into explicit liabilities that sit on their books.

Economists with investment bank Nomura International estimated that Chinese local governments’ outstanding hidden debt amounted to around 40 trillion yuan ($5.8 trillion) at the end of last year, approximately double their explicit liabilities, which totaled 20.5 trillion yuan at the end of June.

Read the full story later today on Caixin Global.

Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com)

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