BEIJING -- China issued 4.55 trillion yuan (about $703 billion) in new local government bonds in 2020, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.

Among the total, the issuance of general bonds totaled 950.6 billion yuan last year, while that of special bonds amounted to 3.6 trillion yuan, the MOF said.

MOF data also showed outstanding local government debt came in at 25.66 trillion yuan by the end of December 2020, within the official limit.

China's top legislative body decided that the upper limit for local government debt in 2020 should be 28.8 trillion yuan.