A broad measure of China’s budget deficit hit a record high in the first 11 months of this year as a real estate meltdown and the zero-COVID policy weighed on the world’s second-largest economy. reports the Financial Times.
Total fiscal spending by all levels of government exceeded revenue by RMB 7.8 trillion ($1.1 trillion) from January through to November, according to the Ministry of Finance. The figure was more than double the RMB 3.7 trillion reported during the same period of last year.
The rise in the government deficit highlights the economic damage from the COVID-19 elimination policy—which entailed relentless contact tracing, testing and lockdowns to root out coronavirus—as well as a crackdown on housing speculation by the Chinese government.