New data from the Ministry of Finance shows that fiscal revenue grew steadily in the first three quarters, with spending on key areas—especially investment in people—well safeguarded. At the same time, a more proactive fiscal policy has been implemented vigorously and effectively, with policy tools such as fiscal-financial coordination to boost domestic demand and local government special bonds fully unleashing their effectiveness, driving the economy to continue developing in a new, improved, and positive direction.
Fiscal Revenue Grows Steadily
In the first three quarters, national general public budget revenue reached 17.23 trillion yuan, up 5.1% year on year, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over the first half of the year. Ma Hongbing, deputy director of the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Finance, said the main reason is that China's economy has been operating steadily overall, maintaining a trend of development toward new and improved directions. At the same time, factors such as rising prices and strong foreign trade growth also provided solid support for fiscal revenue growth. In the first three quarters, national tax revenue reached 14.07 trillion yuan, up 6.1% year on year, an increase of 0.8 percentage points over the first half. By tax category, domestic value-added tax grew 6%, VAT and consumption tax on imported goods grew 12.7%, and corporate income tax grew 7.1%. "Driven by the combined effects of industrial and service sector growth, price recovery, and improved corporate profits, the recovery in production and operations is transmitting positively to fiscal revenue," said Li Xuhong, vice president and professor at the Beijing National Accounting Institute. The growth rate of non-tax revenue declined. In the first three quarters, national non-tax revenue reached 3.16 trillion yuan, up 1.2% year on year, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points from the first half. Among this, revenue from paid use of state-owned resources (assets) grew 1.5%, mainly due to increased proceeds from mining rights transfers; revenue from administrative and institutional fees fell 1.6%, mainly because starting from the fall semester of last year, childcare and education fees for children in their final year of public kindergarten were waived.
Fiscal expenditure is closely linked to economic operations and people's livelihoods. Since the beginning of this year, fiscal expenditure has maintained necessary intensity, with spending related to investment in people particularly well safeguarded. In the first three quarters, national general public budget expenditure reached 21.02 trillion yuan, up 1% year on year. Among major expenditure areas nationwide, health expenditure grew 7.7%, mainly due to increased childcare subsidies; social security and employment expenditure grew 5.2%; and housing security expenditure grew 3.1%. Behind these figures is the continuous enhancement of the people's sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security. Li Xuhong believes that livelihood spending on medical care, childcare, and social security can reduce family burdens and improve consumption expectations.
Fiscal-Financial Coordination Delivers Results
"Since the beginning of this year, finance departments at all levels have vigorously and effectively implemented a more proactive fiscal policy, fully leveraged the effectiveness of existing policies, promptly planned and introduced incremental policies, deeply advanced scientific fiscal management, and continuously improved the efficiency of fiscal fund use, providing strong guarantees for accomplishing the annual economic and social development goals and tasks," said Ma Hongbing. Establishing fiscal-financial coordination policy tools to boost domestic demand is an important innovative measure in macroeconomic regulation this year. Since the introduction of a package of policies at the beginning of the year, further optimization and strengthening measures were rolled out in August—how effective have they been? "From the implementation situation, in the first three quarters, policies such as interest subsidies for loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, interest subsidies for equipment renewal loans, and interest subsidies for loans to service industry business entities supported new credit issuance of over 28 trillion yuan in related fields, up 3.1% year on year; cumulatively benefiting 8.36 million enterprises and 147 million person-times of residents," introduced Li Nan, deputy director of the Financial Department of the Ministry of Finance. During the implementation of the package of policies, close attention was paid to market demand, dynamically expanding the scope of support to better match enterprise operations and resident consumption financing needs. Taking interest subsidies for small and medium-sized enterprise loans as an example, the policy initially focused on supporting fixed asset loans. To meet enterprises' daily operating turnover needs, starting from August, working capital loans were included in the support scope. The policy effect accelerated its release, supporting over 1.8 trillion yuan in new working capital loans within two months. The comprehensive effectiveness of the policies continued to be released. "The package of policies is anchored to the goal of expanding domestic demand, using fiscal funds to leverage financial resources and financial channels to exert multiplier effects, focusing on stimulating private investment and promoting resident consumption, and enhancing the quality and efficiency of financial services to the real economy. In the first three quarters, cumulative benefits to private investment and resident consumption each exceeded 2 trillion yuan," said Li Nan. Starting from October 1, the interest subsidy policy for resident home purchase loans was implemented nationwide. From the operational situation, the policy has been implemented smoothly with initial results. "According to feedback from handling banks, during this period many families have been viewing and purchasing homes and processing loans, generally believing that the interest subsidy policy has genuinely reduced monthly payment burdens, giving them more room in daily expenses and children's education," said Li Nan. Next, coordination will be strengthened to vigorously and effectively advance policy implementation, ensuring that policy dividends are delivered accurately and directly and that all eligible parties can enjoy them.
Special Bonds More Focused
Data shows that this year Hubei Province has cumulatively issued 284 local government special bond projects in the "six networks" sector, with an issuance scale of 21.8 billion yuan. This is a microcosm of localities across the country accelerating the pace of special bond issuance and use this year, focusing on key areas and actively leveraging policy effectiveness. According to statistics, from January to September, the country issued a total of 3,560.8 billion yuan in new special bonds, with an issuance progress of 81%. Among this, 633.9 billion yuan was issued in September, an increase of 214.8 billion yuan over the same period last year, marking a significant acceleration in issuance. "Localities focus on their own development strategies and advantageous industries, prioritizing funding needs for projects under construction and continued construction, with more optimized coordination in funds and projects, focusing on infrastructure and livelihood project construction, effectively leveraging the policy effectiveness of special bonds in benefiting livelihoods, promoting investment, and shoring up weak links," said Zhao Zeyong, deputy director of the Debt Management Department of the Ministry of Finance. In recent years, according to authorization from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and with the consent of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance has, in the fourth quarter of each year, pre-issued part of the next year's new local government debt limit within 60% of the current year's new local government debt limit. Zhao Zeyong revealed that the Ministry of Finance will promptly carry out the work of pre-issuing part of the 2027 new local government debt limit, guiding localities to plan early, prepare early, and promptly fulfill relevant procedures such as budget compilation, ensuring that bond issuance starts as early as possible in January next year. "The first three quarters' data reflects the improvement in tax sources brought by economic recovery, and also reflects the mutual coordination among livelihood protection, financing support, and risk resolution. Next, it is necessary to further strengthen scientific fiscal management to promote fiscal sustainability," said Li Xuhong.
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