China's fiscal revenue sees increase in first 7 months

BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue edged up 0.1 percent year-on-year to over 13.58 trillion yuan ($1.9 trillion) in the first seven months of the year, said the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.

The central government collected over 5.85 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue in the January-July period, down 2 percent year-on-year, while local governments collected over 7.73 trillion yuan in the same period, up 1.8 percent year-on-year.

China's fiscal expenditure expanded 3.4 percent year-on-year to nearly 16.1 trillion yuan in the first seven months. The central government's fiscal expenditure rose 8.8 percent year-on-year during the period, and there was a 2.5 percent increase in local government expenditure during the same period.

During the first seven months, spending on education came in at approximately 2.44 trillion yuan, up 5.7 percent year-on-year; science and technology expenditure reached 533 billion yuan, a 3.2 percent year-on-year increase; and spending on social security and employment topped 2.76 trillion yuan, up 9.8 percent year-on-year.