Questions over credibility of China’s budget

China’s budget planners have a history of wildly underestimating revenue growth, usually making actual net spending by the government far less supportive to the economy than originally planned. The proliferation of fines and fees not included in the main government budget, which are starting to rival formal taxation in scale, further undermines the reliability of the government’s fiscal estimates.

This Update is adapted from an article published in today’s China Daily newspaper.