China's general public budget expenditure rises

China's general public budget expenditure expanded 2.5 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2024 and is poised to maintain a steady growth trend over the coming months, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.

According to the ministry, the country's general public budget expenditure amounted to 15.55 trillion yuan ($2.18 trillion) during the period, giving a sound support to key sectors such as social security and employment, and agriculture, forestry and water conservancy.

The expenditures at central and local government levels grew by 9.3 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, China's general public budget revenue totaled 13.57 trillion yuan from January to July, a year-on-year decrease of 2.6 percent, said the ministry.

After adjusting for special factors, including reductions and delayed collections of some taxes, the revenue's comparable growth was around 1.2 percent.

Specifically, the country's tax revenue dipped 5.4 percent, while the non-tax revenue surged 12 percent during the first seven months. The export tax rebate reached about 1.28 trillion yuan, an increase of 163.2 billion yuan from one year earlier, injecting strong impetus into the country's foreign trade.

In addition, the ministry said the local government debt risks are generally controllable and the scale of hidden debts has been gradually reduced since 2023. Local governments have issued refinancing bonds to reduce pressure from concentrated maturity of bonds and lower interest expenditure.

liuzizheng@chinadaily.com.cn