China netted an overall fiscal income of 787.2 billion yuan (about
US$95.07 billion) in the January-June period this year, 26.2
percent up over the same period last year,
the Ministry of Finance disclosed
in Xi'an.
At
the same time, the expenditure hit 704.5 billion yuan (about
US$85.08), representing an increase of 20.7 percent over the same
period of last year, a national conference on financial work was
told.
"China has basically maintained a sound balance of fiscal income
and expenditure in the first half of this year while the national
economy continued its ongoing growth," said Xiang Huaicheng,
minister of finance.
The expenditure increase rates were high for major national
infrastructure projects, agriculture, social securities, and
education expenses and for the improvement of facilities of
judiciaries and welfare of their employees.
Xiang said that at present, the slow-down of the global economy and
the import volume of developed countries like the United States
will have an inevitable influence on China's economic development
this year, including the fiscal income of the latter half of this
year.
"China must try much harder to develop its economics, increase
input, speed up consumption, well organize the income work and
energetically economize the expenses," he said.
He
also stressed that the pro-active fiscal policy should be further
carried out to guarantee the rapid increase rate of the national
economics and the welfare of the people, and to promote the
adjustment of the economic structure.
(Shanghai Daily 07/15/2001)