China's government procurement exceeds 2t yuan in 2015

BEIJING - China's government procurement jumped 21.8 percent year on year to 2.11 trillion yuan ($300 billion) last year, official data showed.

The figure is equivalent to 12 percent of the country's fiscal expenditures, or 3.1 percent of GDP, the Ministry of Finance said Friday in an online statement.

Both percentages rose from a year ago. The growth rate for government procurement in 2014 was 5.6 percent.

Procurement of goods, construction and services accounted for 31.2 percent, 52.9 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively.

Procurement of services saw the most rapid increase of 72.9 percent as local governments have been encouraged to purchase more services, such as legal counseling and cleaning.

Government procurement last year continued to prioritize energy-saving and environment-friendly products and favored medium and small companies, said the ministry.

The government spent big as part of efforts to stimulate the slowing economy. National fiscal spending expanded 13.17 percent from a year ago in 2015, data showed earlier.