China reports 5.1% rise in general public budget revenue in first nine months
China’s general public budget revenue reached 17.23 trillion yuan in the first nine months of 2026, a rise of 5.1 per cent from a year earlier, the finance ministry said at a briefing on 23 October.
The release covers January to September and separates the general public budget from the government-fund budget. That distinction is important: the headline revenue figure does not describe all public-sector income, while the government-fund figures include areas such as income from land-use rights.
Tax revenue was 14.07 trillion yuan, up 6.1 per cent year on year. Non-tax revenue was 3.16 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.2 per cent. The ministry said the growth rate for general public budget revenue was 0.4 percentage points higher than in the first half of the year, while the tax-revenue growth rate was 0.8 points higher.
Tax receipts rose faster than headline revenue
Several of the larger tax categories increased over the period. Domestic value-added tax brought in 5.54 trillion yuan, up 6 per cent. Corporate income tax was 3.48 trillion yuan, a rise of 7.1 per cent, while individual income tax increased 14.1 per cent to 1.35 trillion yuan.
Taxes on imported goods also increased. Import value-added tax and consumption tax totalled 1.52 trillion yuan, up 12.7 per cent. Domestic consumption tax moved in the opposite direction, falling 4.1 per cent to 1.24 trillion yuan.
Refunds of value-added tax and consumption tax on exported goods amounted to 1.81 trillion yuan. The ministry said refunds were 106.9 billion yuan higher than a year earlier, an increase of 6.3 per cent. Refunds are recorded separately from revenue and should not be treated as a rise in tax collected from exports.
Central government general public budget revenue rose 8.3 per cent to 7.67 trillion yuan. Local governments’ own general public budget revenue was 9.56 trillion yuan, up 2.7 per cent. The ministry said 28 of China’s 31 provincial-level regions recorded revenue growth over the first three quarters.
Spending growth was more modest
General public budget expenditure totalled 21.02 trillion yuan, up 1 per cent year on year. Central government expenditure increased 5.8 per cent to 3.28 trillion yuan, while local expenditure edged up 0.2 per cent to 17.74 trillion yuan.
Within the published spending categories, health expenditure rose 7.7 per cent, social security and employment spending increased 5.2 per cent, housing security spending was up 3.1 per cent, and science and technology spending increased 3 per cent. Education spending rose 1.1 per cent. The figures identify changes in budget outlays; they do not on their own measure the results of particular programmes.
The government-fund budget presented a weaker revenue picture. Its revenue fell 18.6 per cent to 2.50 trillion yuan, while expenditure dropped 16.2 per cent to 6.28 trillion yuan. Local government-fund revenue declined 22.3 per cent to 2.13 trillion yuan. Within that, income from the sale of state-owned land-use rights fell 27.9 per cent to 1.61 trillion yuan.
Debt issuance and next year’s preparation
The briefing also set out the use of local-government special bonds. From January to September, local governments issued 3.56 trillion yuan in new special bonds, equivalent to 81 per cent of the annual issuance limit cited by the ministry. September issuance was 633.9 billion yuan, 214.8 billion yuan more than in the same month of 2025.
Of the total, 1.90 trillion yuan of special bonds was issued to replace existing hidden debt, which the ministry said represented 95 per cent of this year’s 2 trillion yuan limit for that purpose. These are issuance and policy-implementation figures, rather than a measure of debt already repaid.
The ministry said it would prepare to allocate part of 2027’s new local-government debt limit in advance, with the aim of allowing issuance to begin early next year. That is a stated administrative step, not a completed allocation.
The latest figures provide a nine-month snapshot of China’s fiscal accounts rather than a full-year outcome. They show tax revenue growing faster than overall general public budget revenue and spending, alongside a continued fall in government-fund income linked to land-use rights.
