China spends $92b on social security in 2012

BEIJING - The expenditure in China's central budget on social insurance and job security totaled 575.37 billion yuan ($91.62 billion) in 2012, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Friday.

The central government also spent 204.82 billion yuan on medical treatment and public health initiatives, the ministry said in an online statement.

Some 45.4 billion yuan was allocated to support local employment subsidies and carry out a job-creation project for high-tech talents, according to the statement.

Expenditures on basic endowment insurance for state enterprise retirees, a major component of China's social insurance funds, hit 217 billion yuan in 2012, it said.

Another 65.4 billion yuan of the central budget went toward subsidies for other rural and urban residents covered under the country's social old-age insurance system, it said.

At least 70 percent of medical expenses were reimbursed for hospitalized residents that subscribed to various types of medical insurance, the ministry added.

China's social insurance funds are composed of five parts: basic endowment insurance for the elderly; basic medical insurance; unemployment insurance; work-related injury insurance; and maternity insurance.

Official data show that China's pension system covered 484 million people by the end of 2012.