Growth of March fiscal revenue slows

The expansion of Chinese government fiscal revenue slowed last month compared to January and February of this year, holding back an already flagging recovery weakened by Covid-related lockdowns, reports Reuters. Last month’s government fiscal revenue rose 3.42% year-on-year to RMB 1.5834 trillion ($91.03 billion), slowing from a 10.5% growth in January-February, according to Reuters calculations based on the official data.

The country’s fiscal spending growth accelerated to 10.4% year-on-year to RMB 2.536 trillion in March, after a 7.0% growth in January-February. For the entire quarter, fiscal revenue rose 8.6% while spending was up 8.3%.

For March, land sales revenues fell 22.84% from a year earlier to RMB 403.6 billion, after a 29.5% plunge in the first two months, as cash-strapped developers grew cautious about land purchases.