11月7日,中国国家财政部发售了一支2年期国债,以帮助解决今年的财玫困难。财政部另外还呼吁公众购买下个月将特别发行中国储蓄债券,以此作为对政府预算的进一步支持。此举表明,政府已经意识到,削减公共债务负担的困难时刻即将来临。中国政府在差不多6年的时间里创造出巨额预算赤字,分析师认为这个问题已快达到承受的极限。一位政府官员承认,2003年预算赤字与国内生产总值(GDP)之比几乎不可能如今年早些时候承诺的那样,降至远低于2002年的3%的水平。自从人们对高额财政支出推动经济的持续增长产生疑问以来,中国的媒体不断载文批评财政扩张政策。非典型肺炎(SARS)的爆发使得中国政府早先对今年或许能在控制赤字方面取得进展的希望落空。SARS的后续影响虽然没有拖累中国经济增长,但却损害了政府的税收并使得政府支出意外增加。中国政府称,今年GDP增长率将达到8.5%,高于预期目标。由于今年赤字控制进展甚微,且对政府债务负担的担忧一定程度上也导致利率上 On November 7, the Ministry of Finance of China released a two-year government bond to help solve the financial difficulties this year. The Ministry of Finance also appealed to the public to purchase next month a special issue of China’s savings bonds as a further support to the government’s budget. The move shows that the government has realized that the difficult time to cut the public debt burden is imminent. The Chinese government has created a huge budget deficit in almost six years, and analysts think the problem has reached the limit of its own. A government official admitted that the 2003 budget deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is almost impossible to promise as early as this year, dropping well below the level of 3% in 2002. Since people have doubts about the continued growth of the economy due to high fiscal spending, the Chinese media constantly criticize the fiscal expansion policy. The outbreak of atypical pneumonia (SARS) led the Chinese government earlier to hope that this year may be able to make progress in controlling the deficit. The subsequent impact of SARS, although not dragging China’s economic growth, undermined the government’s tax revenue and caused an unexpected increase in government spending. The Chinese government said GDP growth will reach 8.5% this year, higher than expected. With little progress in deficit control this year and concerns about the government’s debt burden to some extent also led to interest rates