China's fiscal revenue grows 4.5% in 2016

BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue grew 4.5 percent year-on-year in 2016, to 15.96 trillion yuan ($2.33 trillion), the Ministry of Finance said Monday.

This was a sharp slowdown from the 8.4 percent in 2015 and 8.6 percent in 2014, partly because the country's business tax was replaced with a value-added tax, the ministry said in an online statement.

The slow growth was also due to downward economic pressures. Despite a stabilizing economy, the growth in fixed-asset investment and industrial output fell, hindering fiscal revenue growth.

The central government collected 7.24 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue, up 4.7 percent year-on-year, while local governments saw fiscal revenue rise 4.2 percent to 8.72 trillion yuan.

Value-added tax jumped 30.9 percent year-on-year to 4.07 trillion yuan in 2016, while business tax nosedived 40.4 percent to 1.15 trillion yuan. Consumption tax fell 3.1 percent due to a fall in the output and sales of tobacco and refined oil.

Fiscal expenditure rose 6.4 percent year-on-year, to 18.78 trillion yuan.