Officials from some of China’s most indebted provinces and cities have met leading state bankers in Beijing in recent days as they step up efforts to renegotiate debt payments on billions of dollars in liabilities that threaten to constrain growth in the world’s second-biggest economy.

China’s local governments accumulated enormous liabilities over a decade-long, debt-fuelled building spree. While the infrastructure drive helped fuel growth, many local governments are now grappling with billions of dollars of off-balance sheet debt, stifling their ability to deploy new investments and adding to pressure on the economy as it struggles to regain its footing after the pandemic.

On the sidelines of an annual political gathering in Beijing known as the “Two Sessions”, officials from Liaoning and Hebei provinces and the city of Tianjin have engaged in extensive high-level debt discussions with leading state bankers, according to two people familiar with the talks and public statements from the banks.