China's general budget expenditure up 2% in H1

China's general public budget expenditure saw a year-on-year increase of 2 percent in the first six months of 2024, data from the Ministry of Finance showed on Monday.

According to the ministry, the country's general public budget expenditure amounted to nearly 13.66 trillion yuan ($1.88 trillion) during the period. The expenditures at central and local government levels grew by 9.6 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

Specifically, the expenditure on social security and employment expanded by 4.2 percent to about 2.27 trillion yuan, while the expenditure on health and medical care totaled 1.06 trillion yuan, a year-on-year drop of 12.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the country's general public budget revenue fell slightly by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 11.59 trillion yuan in the first half, said the ministry.

After adjusting for special factors, including reductions and delayed collections of some taxes, the revenue's comparable growth was around 1.5 percent.

In addition, the budget revenue and expenditure of government-managed funds dropped by 15.3 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively, in the first six months from a year earlier, said the ministry.