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China reports $16.21B in fiscal deficit in 2008
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-02 11:01

China reported a fiscal deficit of 111 billion yuan (US$16.21 billion) in 2008.

The country's fiscal revenue reached 6.13 trillion yuan for the whole of 2008, up 19.5 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Monday in a statement posted on its website.

Meanwhile, fiscal spending last year increased 25.4 percent year on year to 6.24 trillion yuan.

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The actual spending was 22.6 percent higher than planned in the budget fixed at the beginning of 2008, and the ministry attributed the increase mainly to extra-budgetary quake relief funds.

The MOF statement noted these are preliminary statistics and may be adjusted later.