China’s General Public Budget Spending Up 3.4% in Jan-May

China's general public budget spending expanded 3.4% year on year to 10.8359 trillion yuan (about $1.52 trillion) in the first five months of 2024, China's Ministry of Finance said Monday. Education, social security and employment took the lion's share of public budget spending, while sectors related to agriculture, forestry and water conservancy reported the fastest growth pace during the period. Data from the ministry also shows that China's general public budget revenue decreased 2.8% year on year to 9.6912 trillion yuan in the first five months. The ministry said that there could be a comparable increase of about 2% after deducting factors such as the introduction of tax relief measures for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the same period of last year, which increased the base rate and the carry-over of the tax reduction policies introduced in the middle of last year. Tax revenue totaled 8.0462 trillion yuan during the January-May period, down 5.1% year on year, with a comparable increase of about 0.5% after deducting the impact of special factors, according to the ministry. Source: Qatar News Agency