China's fiscal revenue rises 4.9% in September

BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue rose 4.9 percent year on year to 1.122 trillion yuan ($166.65 billion) in September, data from the Ministry of Finance showed Wednesday.

Revenue growth was up from the 1.7 percent gain posted in August.

The central government collected 491.7 billion yuan in fiscal revenue in September, up 6.2 percent year on year, while local governments saw fiscal revenue rise 3.8 percent to 630.5 billion yuan.

In the first nine months, fiscal revenue rose 5.9 percent year on year to 12.14 trillion yuan.

In September, fiscal spending gained 11.3 percent to hit 1.98 trillion yuan, bringing expenditure for January-September to 13.6 trillion yuan, up 12.5 percent year on year.

In the face of continued economic headwinds, China has made supply-side reform an economic priority, and tax cuts to lower business costs are a major policy option, putting more pressure on revenue growth.

The ministry said the country is expected to face a grim situation in terms of fiscal revenue increases in the last quarter, due to continued economic downward pressures.

China's gross domestic product expanded by 6.7 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2016, stable with the second quarter.

To cushion the blow from sluggish revenue growth and balance the need for proactive fiscal policies to support growth, China plans to increase its deficit-to-GDP ratio to 3 percent this year, from 2.3 percent last year.