China's fiscal revenue expands 10.6% in H1

BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue climbed 10.6 percent year-on-year to 10.43 trillion yuan ($1.56 trillion) in the first half this year, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The growth retreated from the 12.2-percent gain registered for Jan-May, according to the ministry.

During the first half of the year, the central government collected 4.99 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue, up 13.7 percent year-on-year, while local governments saw fiscal revenue expand 8 percent to 5.44 trillion yuan.

Fiscal spending during the period rose 7.8 percent to 11.16 trillion yuan, accounting for 53.2 percent of the planned budget for the year.

In June alone, fiscal revenue increased 3.5 percent year-on-year to 1.77 trillion yuan, with tax revenue up 8 percent while non-tax revenue declined 14.9 percent compared with a year earlier.

The growth of tax revenue slowed in June, down from 12.8 percent in May, as the effect of the country's policy of lowering value-added tax since May 1 began to appear, said Liu Liu, an economist at China International Capital Co Ltd.

With the economy on firm footing and fiscal revenue increasing, China lowered its fiscal deficit target to 2.6 percent of GDP for 2018, down by 0.4 percentage points compared with 2017, the first drop since 2013.

The government deficit is projected to be 2.38 trillion yuan, with a central government deficit of 1.55 trillion yuan and a local government deficit of 0.83 trillion yuan.

Despite a lower deficit-to-GDP ratio, China has raised the budget for this year's general public expenditure by 7.6 percent to 21 trillion yuan, higher than the 6.1 percent rise in budget revenue.

The accumulated fiscal deficit was 726.1 billion yuan in H1, down from 917.7 billion yuan during the same period of 2017, and there will be more room for the fiscal deficit in the second half, Liu said.