on july 17, the ministry of finance held a press conference to introduce the revenue and expenditure of the first half of 2020. from january to june, revenue in china's general public budgets totaled 96.76 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.8%. spending in general public budgets nationwide was 11.641.1 trillion yuan, down 5.8% from a year earlier.
qualified direct funds will be released before the end of june
in line with the government work report and the executive meeting of the state council, a special transfer payment mechanism has been established, with an additional 2 trillion yuan of government funds going directly to cities and counties and benefiting enterprises and the people. wang kebing, a budget inspector of the ministry of finance, said that by the end of june, all the direct funds that are available have been sent to the local government.
this year, affected by the epidemic, community-level "three guarantees" (basic livelihood, wages and operation) are under greater pressure than in previous years. this year, transfer payments from the central government to local governments will reach 8.391.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 950 billion yuan or 12.8% over last year, the highest increment and growth rates in recent years, with the focus on the central and western regions and regions in difficulty. of this amount, 605 billion yuan will be earmarked for special transfer payments to support local governments in coping with the impact of the epidemic and making up for the gap between reduced revenue and increased spending and the "three guarantees" at the county level. balanced transfer payments in normal transfer payments and rewards and subsidies for ensuring basic funding for county-level governments will both increase by 10%, and transfer payments to old and rural areas, border areas and poor areas will increase by 12.4%.
wang kebing said that this year, the funding sources of local governments for the "three guarantees" are guaranteed. individual cities and counties that have financial difficulties can also solve them in a timely manner through relevant working mechanisms.
anti-epidemic special national debt subscription demand is strong
a total of 1 trillion yuan of special national debt will be issued this year. as of july 16, 12 issues had been issued, with a total issuance of 720 billion yuan. among them, the five-year, seven-year and 10-year issues are 200 billion yuan, 100 billion yuan and 420 billion yuan respectively.
liu jinyun, director of the treasury payment center of the ministry of finance, said that the average interest rate of the issued special anti-epidemic treasury bonds is 2.75 percent, which is well in line with the yield of the secondary market of treasury bonds, and the interest rate is in line with market expectations. in addition, subscription demand remained strong, with an average bid multiple of 2.63 times, 0.1 times higher than the average bookkeeping interest-bearing government bonds since june. market institutions generally believe that the high transparency and balanced pace of the issuance of special anti-epidemic treasury bonds has maintained the smooth operation of the bond market. "going forward, the ministry of finance will continue to coordinate the issuance of special, general and local government bonds to ensure that the remaining 280 billion yuan of special bonds will be issued by the end of july."
the use of new special debt is good
in response to the impact of the epidemic, an additional 3.75 trillion yuan of special bonds have been allocated this year, an increase of 74.4% over the previous year. with the approval of the state council, an additional 2.29 trillion yuan of special bonds was issued in three batches in advance. the fourth installment of the quota of 1.26 trillion yuan has just been released.
mr wang said the new special bond issuance this year had been well used. by july 14, an additional 2.24 trillion yuan in special bonds had been issued across the country.
"the 2.24 trillion yuan of newly issued special bonds will be used for major infrastructure projects and livelihood services identified by the state council at its executive meetings." about 220 billion yuan of new special bonds will be used as capital for eligible major projects in railway, rail transit, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, ecological and environmental protection, which will help boost effective investment, wang said. in addition, the structure of special debt has been further improved, with local governments actively allocating special bond funds to support key areas such as the "two new priorities", the construction of the public health system, and the renovation of old urban residential areas, totaling more than 900 billion yuan.
source: ministry of finance, prc