For example, in the economic powerhouse of Guangdong province, direct government debt (to be repaid by government fiscal revenue) accounted for 54.4 percent of the province's fiscal revenue as of the end of 2012. In Zhejiang, the ratio was 63.5 percent.

By comparison, the national figure was 105.7 percent at the end of 2012.

All local governments that have released their audit results so far stressed that risk is under control in general.

However, the situation in some cities is more worrisome. In Guangzhou — the capital of Guangdong — the municipal government's liabilities surged from 241.4 billion yuan in mid-2012 to 356.1 billion yuan a year later.

The Guangzhou government didn't provide a debt-to-fiscal revenue ratio, but it said the figure is approaching the international warning level.

It also said it is facing a "heavy" principal and interest repayment burden, and it vowed to cut its current debt by 60 percent by the end of 2016.

"Guangzhou's situation is in line with previous estimates. The disclosure at least showed the government is frank about the question", said Lin Jiang, a public finance professor at Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University.

Provincial governments that have released results so far have identified "curbing debt growth" as a main part of this year's economic work. At the national Central Economic Work Conference in December, the central government made the same promise.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said in a videoconference on Thursday that the central government isn't likely to allow local government financing vehicles to default in the short term.

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