China reported a fiscal deficit of 111 billion yuan (US$16.21 billion) in 2008.

The country's fiscal revenue reached 6.13 trillion yuan for the whole of 2008, up 19.5 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said today in a statement posted on its website.

The country's fiscal revenue reached 6.13 trillion yuan for 2008, up 19.5 percent from the previous year, the ministry said.

Fiscal spending increased 25.4 percent year on year in 2008 to 6.24 trillion yuan.

The actual spending was 22.6 percent higher than planned in the budget fixed at the beginning of 2008, and the ministry attributed the increase to extra-budgetary quake relief funds.

In December alone, the country's fiscal revenue was 324.9 billion yuan, up 3.3 percent over the same month of 2007, while fiscal spending rose 30.8 percent to hit 1.66 trillion yuan.

The MOF statement noted these are preliminary statistics and may be adjusted later.

Morgan Stanley Asia Chief Economist Wang Qing said that 111 billion yuan of fiscal deficit is not a large number for China and indicated that the country still has great potential to further boost its economy.

The country's fiscal deficit hit a record 320 billion yuan in 2003. The figure was 200 billion yuan in 2007.

"If world economy remains dim, the Chinese government can adopt more economic stimulus in the future if necessary," said Wang.

But Wang added that he felt "there is no need for the country to worry about fiscal burden."

To cope with the worldwide economic crises, China launched a stimulus package of 4 trillion yuan to boost domestic demand in both infrastructure investment and consumption during 2009 and 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2009)