China's fiscal revenue rises 13.9% in June

BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue rose 13.9 percent year on year to 1.53 trillion yuan ($251.39 billion) in June, the Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday.

Combined fiscal revenue in the first six months hit 7.96 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percent. The growth was 4.1 percentage points lower than the rise seen in the same period last year.

Several factors have caused slower growth, the ministry said, including lower global commodity prices that triggered a fall in import value, slowing industrial activity, a reduction in business tax collected from a sluggish property sector, as well as the government's efforts to cut taxes and fees to relieve the burden on businesses.

The ministry said it will strengthen budget management and keep cutting taxes and fees in the July-December period.

Fiscal spending in June hit 1.88 trillion yuan, up 13.9 percent year on year. Total fiscal spending in the first half of the year amounted to 7.73 trillion yuan, up 11.8 percent year on year, with spending on social security and employment up 20.9 percent to 1.04 trillion yuan.

Premier Li Keqiang, speaking at the opening of the annual parliamentary session in March, stressed that a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy would continue in 2015.

China plans to raise its budget deficit to 2.3 percent of its GDP for 2015, up from last year's target of 2.1 percent.

China's economy posted 7-percent growth year on year in the second quarter of 2015, unchanged from the first quarter, the lowest quarterly growth rate since 2009.