Implicit government debt refers to the debt that the government directly borrows or promises to repay with financial funds, and illegally provides guarantees that exceed the legal government debt limit. There are still some vague areas that are reserved for local governments to declare and identify funds, such as: PPP projects operated by the government in compliance, future government expenditure responsibilities (obviously, there is still great controversy in practice on this point, and the Ministry of Finance is indeed restricting the warehousing of pure government-paid projects, especially the extension of BT projects with availability payment), and the debts borrowed by affordable housing projects before 20 16. Generally speaking, unlike the debt within the government debt limit included in the budget management, all illegal borrowing or guarantee activities by the government outside it belong to the act of increasing the government's hidden debt.

1.20 18, 1 1, the central bank issued the China Financial Stability Report (20 18), which comprehensively evaluated the soundness of China's financial system since 20 17, and revealed the typical hidden debts of local governments for the first time.

1) Counties and cities with government investment as the main economic driving force rely too much on subsidies from higher authorities and have a strong financing impulse. New loans for political trust projects of banking institutions increased.

2) The proportion of implicit debt is high, and the balance of implicit debt is higher than that of explicit debt. Under the cover of illegal debt clearing, the hidden debt of bank-related political trust projects accounts for a large proportion of the bank's creditor's rights to the government.

3) The types of implicit debt include: corporate bonds issued by the platform, medium-term notes, short-term securities lending and other debt instruments. Trust and other non-bank financial institutions financing, corporate and personal loans, payments payable to suppliers, etc.

4) Implicit debt is invested in long-term projects, such as infrastructure construction, shed relocation park construction, and daily operation of the platform.

5) The proportion of implicit debt at county level and municipal level is higher than that at provincial level.

Second, the main forms of implicit debt

According to the definition of implicit debt of local government, we can know that implicit debt of local government usually mainly includes:

1. Use illegal loans from enterprises and institutions. Guo Fa [2065438+04] No.43 has made it clear that to draw a clear line between the government and enterprises, government debts can only be borrowed by the government and its departments, not by enterprises and institutions. Local governments and their subordinate departments shall not illegally provide guarantees for the debts of any unit or individual in any way.

3. According to the Explanation of the Ministry of Finance on Reporting Local Full-caliber Debt Stock Statistics, the central finance focuses on the inventory of hidden debts of the following two types of institutions: institutions and institutions. Including party committees, government departments, institutions, social organizations and state-owned enterprises at all levels, including first-class (group) enterprises and their subordinate enterprises (including subsidiaries and holding companies with independent legal personality). Including but not limited to: ① List of financing platforms approved by CBRC. (2) The list of financing platforms identified by the Ministry of Finance when screening the existing government debt was cleared on 20 14. ③ Since 2065438+06, the list of financing platforms promised by local governments to repay or provide guarantees and the financial expenditures contracted by them have been counted. (four) other state-owned enterprises that are not included in the catalogue management but meet the definition of monitoring scope.