China's January-September fiscal revenue up 5.1% y/y

BEIJING, Oct 23 (Reuters) - China's fiscal revenue increased 5.1% in the first nine months of 2026 from a year earlier, following a gain of 5.7% in the January-August period, the finance ministry said on Friday.

In the January-September period, fiscal revenue totalled 17.2 trillion yuan ($2.58 trillion), with tax revenue growing 6.1% year-on-year and non-tax revenue expanding 1.2%.

Fiscal expenditure was ⁠up 1.0% on the year in the period, slowing from a rise of 1.2% in the first eight months.

China has accelerated local special bond issuance this year and plans to front-load part of its 2027 quota, finance ministry official Zhao Zeyong told a press conference on Friday.

Net special bond issuance from January to September reached 3.56 trillion yuan, ⁠accounting for 81% of the annual quota, and issuance for September was at 633.5 billion yuan, up by 214.8 billion yuan from the same month last year, Zhao said.

Revenue from government ⁠land sales fell 27.9% on the year for the period from January to September, narrowing from a fall of 28.6% in the ⁠first eight months of this year.

The property sector downturn that began in mid-2021 has eroded land-sale revenue, long ⁠a crucial funding source for Chinese local governments.

($1 = 6.6711 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting by Kevin Yao, Shi Bu and Yukun Zhang; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Philippa Fletcher