THE country’s fiscal revenues rose 3.2 percent in June from a year earlier, reversing a 10 percent drop in May and returning to expansion for the first time this year, the finance ministry said Friday, in line with a recovery in the economy.

Fiscal revenues have been gradually recovering in the second quarter of the year after a deep decline in the first three months, ministry official Liu Jinyun told a briefing.

For the first half, fiscal revenues fell 10.8 percent from a year earlier to 9.6176 trillion yuan, while fiscal spending fell 5.8 percent to 11.6411 trillion yuan, the ministry said.

Tax revenues fell 11.3 percent in the first half of the year, while non-tax revenues were down 8 percent, it said.

China has issued 720 billion yuan (US$102.89 billion) in special treasury bonds as of July 16, accounting for 72 percent of the planned issuance that could be completed by the end of July, Liu said.

In May, the government said it would issue 1 trillion yuan in special treasury bonds to support employment, expand consumption and investment.

The government will also let local governments issue 3.75 trillion yuan worth of special bonds to fund investment projects.

The States Council said last week that local governments had issued 2.24 trillion yuan in special bonds by mid-July, of which 1.9 trillion yuan had been spent.

Funds raised from local government special bonds must be used for projects with certain returns and cannot be used to pay wages or pensions, ministry official Wang Kebing told the briefing.

The ministry had issued a fourth batch of a local government special bond quota of 1.26 trillion yuan, on top of previous tranches totalling 2.29 trillion yuan, Wang said.

The government will prevent risks from local government debt and will not relax controls due to the coronavirus, Wang said.

(SD-Agencies)