China Local Government Debt at CNY16.6 Trillion at End-Nov -- Finance Ministry

The outstanding debt held by Chinese local governments stood at 16.6 trillion yuan ($2.55 trillion) at the end of November, well under the 18.8 trillion yuan ceiling set by the country's legislators earlier this year, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance on Friday.

At the end of 2016, local government debt was 15.3 trillion yuan, official data showed.

In the first eleven months, Chinese local governments have issued 4.33 trillion yuan worth of bonds, over half of which were used to swap existing, high-cost debt, the finance ministry said.

Write to Grace Zhu at grace.zhu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 28, 2017 22:02 ET (03:02 GMT)