Chinese government debt totaled more than 56 trillion yuan ($9 trillion) by the end of 2013, an increase of nearly 20 percent, which exceeds the 10 percent growth of total assets to 111.9 trillion yuan, according to a top government think tank.

The National Academy of Economic Strategy (NAES), a unit under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the term "government" used in the report refers to central and local government as well as entities, institutes or funds sponsored by state funding.

The 56 trillion figure lumps together different types of liabilities. A breakdown of the debt structure shows government owes 20.7 trillion yuan to creditors, state-owned financial institutions have non-performing assets of 3.8 trillion yuan, policy banks float bonds of 9 trillion yuan, part of foreign debts account for 3 trillion yuan, and that the social security fund is short 10 trillion yuan.

Yang Zhiyong, a NAES researcher, said the debt scale is massive but manageable and sufficient enough to deal with the problem.

He added that the debt surge of 20 percent is mainly due to an increase in debts at a local government level.