China pledges new audit measures to curb risks and stabilise growth

China will boost its auditing work to make sure the ruling party officials implement policy initiatives, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Tuesday.

Audits should focus on ensuring support and financing for the real economy, it said, citing a recent meeting of the Communist Party audit committee chaired by China President Xi Jinping.

Close attention should be paid to areas like local government debt, finance, property, food and energy in order to reduce systemic risks, the report said.

This comes as China is experiencing a tepid economic recovery after belatedly emerging from its zero-Covid policy late last year.

China kept its benchmark lending rates unchanged for the ninth month in May, despite the latest raft of April economic data that suggest growth in the world’s second-largest economy remains sluggish.

China announced changes to the way it organised its financial regulators in March.

It started a new body that absorbed its banking and insurance regulators, two financial institutions among 25 that China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection sharply criticised early last year.