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China reports 111b yuan in 2008 fiscal deficit

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-02 11:13

China reported a fiscal deficit of 111 billion yuan ($16.21 billion) in 2008.

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The country's fiscal revenue reached 6.13 trillion yuan for the whole of 2008, up 19.5 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Monday in a statement posted on its website.

Meanwhile, fiscal spending last year increased 25.4 percent year on year to 6.24 trillion yuan.

The actual spending was 22.6 percent higher than planned in the budget fixed at the beginning of 2008, and the ministry attributed the increase mainly to extra-budgetary quake relief funds.

The MOF statement noted these are preliminary statistics and may be adjusted later.

Morgan Stanley Asia Chief Economist Wang Qing said that 111 billion yuan of fiscal deficit is not a large number for China and indicated that the country still has great potential to further boost its economy.

The country's fiscal deficit hit a record 320 billion yuan in 2003. The figure was 200 billion yuan in 2007.

"If world economy remains dim, the Chinese government can adopt more economic stimulus in the future if necessary," said Wang.

But Wang added that he felt "there is no need for the country to worry about fiscal burden."

To cope with the worldwide economic crises, China launched a stimulus package of 4 trillion yuan to boost domestic demand in both infrastructure investment and consumption during 2009 and 2010.