Guangdong Government Debt Pile Approaches $422 Billion

What’s new: Government debt balance in Southern China’s Guangdong province, one of the country’s economic powerhouses, amounted to nearly 3 trillion yuan ($422 billion) by the end of 2023, almost doubling the province’s public budget revenue that year, government data show.

The growing debt pile of Guangdong, China’s largest regional economy, highlighted the rising debt burden facing local authorities since the onset of the Covid pandemic. Local coffers have been squeezed by surging expenditures and slowing incomes.