This aerial photo taken on Oct. 11, 2023 shows the construction site of Zangke River bridge on Nayong-Qinglong Expressway in southwest China's Guizhou Province. The 162.2-kilometer Nayong-Qinglong Expressway will allow vehicles to run at 100 kilometers per hour when accomplished.(Photo: Xinhua)

China is highly likely to increase the quota of local government bonds and allow them to be issued ahead of the budget during an upcoming meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, in a move to bolster economic growth amid headwinds, experts told the Global Times.

The sixth session of the Standing Committee of the 14th NPC, which will run from October 20 to 24 in Beijing, will review a bill assigning additional local government debt quotas in advance, the Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

China has previously let local governments issue bonds in advance, ahead of the national budget approval in March during the annual "two sessions".

In 2018, the NPC decided in a session that the State Council, the cabinet, was authorized to issue in advance an additional general bond quota of 580 billion yuan ($79.4 billion) and special-purpose bonds of 810 billion yuan.

The State Council was also allowed to free up part of the next year's bonds in advance. The sum could account for some 60 percent of the ongoing year's bonds quota. 

The authorization period, however, expired at the end of 2022, which means if additional bonds for 2024 are to be issued in advance this year, the NPC needs to pass another bill to authorize this.

Hu Qimu, deputy secretary-general of the digital real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times Sunday that early issues had played a positive fiscal role in promoting economic development in recent years. "It is helpful for local governments to plan projects in advance and arrange bond issues at a reasonable pace, in order to achieve local economic growth goals."

Since the start of the year, Western media have hyped China's alleged local government debt problem, but they have chosen to neglect facts as well as efforts by the Chinese central government and provinces to resolve local government debt.

Compared with the developed economies such as the US, China's local government debt level is still low and the overall risk is controllable, experts said.

According to the Ministry of Finance, as of the end of August, the balance of China's local government bonds stood at 38.75 trillion yuan, within the limit approved by the NPC of 42.17 trillion yuan.

The practice of early bond issues needs to be extended at a moment when the economy still needs stimulus, Hu noted.

China is scheduled to release its third-quarter economic data including GDP, retail sales and fixed-asset investment on Wednesday. Industry observers expect third-quarter GDP to have achieved higher than 4 percent year-on-year growth.

China's GDP expanded 6.3 percent in the second quarter on a yearly basis, accelerating from 4.5 percent in the first quarter.

Wang Qing, chief macroeconomic analyst at Golden Credit Rating International, said in a note sent to the Global Times that with the economic recovery gathering momentum in the fourth quarter, GDP may grow 5.5 percent in the quarter when driving economic forces including consumption, exports and investment will be stronger than in the first half of the year.

While presiding over a symposium on the economic situation attended by economists and entrepreneurs, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said since the start of the third quarter, the economy has sustained its recovery momentum, with positive factors amassing, which laid a solid foundation for achieving the yearly economic development target.

"The fundamentals for China's development have remained unchanged, the strength for development is unchanged and kepts expanding, and new growth drivers are burgeoning," Li said.