Looking at local government debt in China now. Finance Ministry data released Wednesday showed that local government debt was up 7.5 percent at the end of 2017 from a year ago, but remained within official limits.

The ministry said outstanding local government debt amounted to 16.5 trillion yuan. That was under the official cap of 18.8 trillion yuan. Local governments borrowed 4.36 trillion yuan last year. One-point-five-nine trillion yuan of that was newly added debt and the rest was converted from maturing debt. Local Chinese governments have been borrowing at a fast pace since 2010 to fund an increasing number of public projects. The increased debt has triggered attention from the central government.