BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s fiscal revenue in 2024 grew 1.3% from a year earlier, slowing sharply from a 6.4% rise in 2023, finance ministry data showed on Friday, as a protracted property market slump and slowing domestic demand weighs on the economy.
Fiscal revenues in 2024 totalled 21.97 trillion yuan ($3.03 trillion), including 17.497 trillion yuan in tax receipts and 4.473 trillion yuan in non-tax income, the data showed.
China’s tax revenue fell 3.4% in 2024 from the previous year, while non-tax revenue surged 25.4%, the ministry said.
A recent rush by cash-starved local governments to impose ad-hoc fines and confiscations on companies, which worsens already weak business confidence, has alarmed Chinese leaders.
In December, Premier Li Qiang said China must strengthen law enforcement supervision and pay attention to abnormal growth of fines and confiscation income, pledging to take action to improve the business environment and boost market confidence.
Non-tax revenue includes a wide range of sources such as administrative fees, fines and confiscations and profits from state-owned firms.
Revenue from land sales by China’s local governments dropped 16% in 2024 compared with the previous year, highlighting the deep property downturn. Such revenues have in the past been a key driver for local economic growth measures and the sharp drop has been a major factor weighing on overall business activity.
Fiscal expenditure grew 3.6% last year, slowing from 5.4% in 2023.
China’s top leaders have pledged to adopt a more proactive fiscal policy this year as external headwinds loom with a second Trump administration.
China’s economy grew 5% last year, matching the government’s target, but in a lopsided fashion, with many people complaining of worsening living standards as Beijing struggles to transfer its industrial and export gains to consumers while keeping local government debt in check.
($1 = 7.2441 Chinese yuan renminbi)
