China’s 2010 fiscal deficit at $124 billion

China's central government expenditures exceeded revenue in 2010, resulting in a fiscal deficit of 800 billion yuan ($123.52 billion), about 50 billion yuan less than the annual budget, said finance minister Xie Xuren on Monday.

Addressing the 21st session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), Xie said the central government's revenue hit nearly 4.26 trillion yuan last year, about 1.8 billion yuan more than the budgetary figure, while its expenditure reached nearly 5.06 trillion yuan, 830 million yuan more than the budgetary figure.

The total central fiscal expenditure included about 1.6 trillion yuan of central government spending, and more than 3.23 trillion yuan of tax rebates and transfer payments to local governments, Xie said.

As on December 31, the outstanding national debt of the world's second-largest economy stood at 6.75 trillion yuan, which was within the 7.12 trillion yuan limit in the annual budget, he said.

China has announced a record budget deficit of 950 billion yuan ($139 billion) for 2009 - the highest in six decades - as the impact of the global financial crisis eats into the country's revenues (See: China's budget records highest fiscal deficit in six decades).

Meanwhile, in a separate report submitted by Liu Jiayi, the auditor-general of the National Audit Office (NAO), revealed that the Chinese local governments' debt totalled 10.72 trillion yuan ($1.66 trillion) at the end of 2010, or 44 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).