Beijing announces $21b budget for 2014

The Beijing municipal government announced its 2014 budget for its 98 bureaus and administrations on Monday, allocating more than 130 billion yuan ($21 billion), Beijing Times reported on Tuesday. An additional 14 million yuan was added to this year's budget to research smog control and 33.1 million yuan was earmarked to eliminate cockroaches in local households.

In line with a government austerity campaign, the budget for three public expenses — to buy and use cars, travel overseas and host meetings — was cut from 1.11 billion yuan in 2013 to 972 million yuan, a 12.6 percent decrease.