LANTERN SEASON: Villagers make red lanterns in Donghuafeng Village of Jiaozuo, central China's Henan Province. As the Lunar New Year approaches, hand-made lanterns from the village are in high demand (FENG XIAOMIN)

Government Debt

The National Audit Office (NAO) said on December 30, 2013 that governments at various levels in China had been liable for a total direct debt of 20.7 trillion yuan ($3.4 trillion) as of the end of June 2013.

The results came after a two-month-long nationwide audit of government debt by the NAO in August and September of 2013.

In summary, the audit results showed that direct debt owned by the Central Government stood at 9.81 trillion yuan ($1.62 trillion) at the end of June 2013, while the remaining 10.89 trillion yuan ($1.8 trillion) was owned by local governments.

The debt guaranteed by the Central Government was 260 billion yuan ($42.98 billion), while debt guaranteed by local governments totaled 2.67 trillion yuan ($441.4 billion), according to the NAO.

Over the past year or so, the market has experienced anxiety over the scale of local government debt, as there has been no official update on it since mid-2011, when the NAO put the nationwide figure at around 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.77 trillion) for the end of 2010.

PMI Drop

China's purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector dropped to 51 percent in December 2013, down from 51.4 percent in November, according to official data released on January 1.

December marked the first time since June 2013 that the manufacturing PMI had declined, according to a statement jointly released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP). An index above 50 indicates expansion while an index below 50 indicates contraction.

Zhao Qinghe, an economist from the NBS, said that the weaker momentum indicated by December's PMI is due to seasonal factors. "The PMI figure still shows expansion in December, and it has remained above 50 for 15 consecutive months, which means the general industrial situation is stable," said Zhao.

Chen Zhongtao, an analyst from the CFLP, said that during the process of accelerating structural rebalance and controlling overcapacity, the growth rate of manufacturing industries may continue to slow in the near future.

"A key task for 2014's macroeconomic policies is to expand domestic demand in order to stabilize overall growth, and to be careful about possible sharp contractions of exports since the international environment is complicated," said Chen.

Supportive measures are also needed to help the growth of small-scale manufacturing businesses, which will strengthen entrepreneur confidence, he added.

Economic Census

China's third national economic census entered its registration phase on January 1, after months of preparation, according to the NBS.

The census is designed to paint a wide economic picture of China's fast-expanding secondary and tertiary industries and to compile a database covering all economic sectors, NBS Commissioner Ma Jiantang said.

The census will survey over 10 million companies and 60 million privately or individually owned businesses over the next three months.

Nearly 3 million statisticians will collect data related to enterprise ownership, staff size, financial status, production capacity and research and development activities during the census.

According to Ma, refusal to register accurate data, leaking of census data by census officials and institutions, and tampering with data will all be dealt with seriously. He added that data gathered during the census cannot be used as evidence for legal prosecution.

The final results will be released in the second half of 2014, according to the NBS. The census is conducted once every five years.