Officials must work hard to meet the country's fiscal revenue, investment and foreign trade targets as they are "very difficult to achieve," China's top economic planner told lawmakers on Thursday.
Despite the steady performance of China's economy in the first half of 2015 -- GDP grew by the expected 7 percent, the economy is facing multiple domestic and international challenges, said Xu Shaoshi, minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, during the ongoing bimonthly session of the top legislature.
While delivering a report to the session, Xu expressed confidence that China's economy can maintain steady growth in the second half of 2015, and that the country can meet major annual targets including economic growth, employment, grain output, pollutant control and affordable housing.
China is dealing with complicated situations with strong uncertainty at home and abroad, with some fields facing heightened difficulties and risks, Xu said, adding the foundation for an improved economy was not solid enough.
Internationally, the global economy is growing slower than expected and faces new uncertainties, which poses an increasingly negative impact on the Chinese economy, said Xu while elaborating on the report.
China's economy is still facing downward pressure, the market demand remains weak and enterprises face sluggish profits, he said, warning that potential risks remain in sectors such as production safety.
To tackle these problems, the central government will continue a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, Xu said.
The government will actively develop private banks, support and standardize Internet finance and small-loan companies, he said, adding more efforts will be made to cultivate an open, transparent, stable and healthy capital market.
China will continue to offer taxation and financial support to innovation, and give more preferential taxes to small businesses, he said, adding more attention will also be given to defusing financial risks.
According to a report on the 2015 budget, also brought forth on Thursday, central and local governments reported slower and "severe" fiscal revenue growth in the first seven months, due to factors such as economic slowdown and falling prices.
The growth of tax revenue hit a five-year low in the January-July period of 2015, compared with the same periods since 2010, according to Lou Jiwei, minister of finance, when briefing lawmakers at the six-day legislative session beginning on Monday, which was attended by top legislator Zhang Dejiang.
Fiscal revenues nationwide increased 7.5 percent year on year in the first seven months, Lou said.
Central fiscal revenue totaled 4.3 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.5 percent, while local fiscal revenue was 5.08 trillion yuan with a growth of 5.3 percent. However, the growth rates dropped 0.5 percentage points and 5.5 percentage points respectively.
The growth rates of fiscal revenues in China's eastern, central and western regions declined 4.5 percentage points, 7.4 percentage points and 6.5 percentage points in the January-July period in comparison with the same periods of last year. Even worse, the revenues in seven provincial divisions decreased, he said.
The central government spent 1.44 trillion yuan in the seven months, 57.8 percent of the annual budgeted figure, while local governments spent nearly 7.56 trillion yuan, about 51.8 percent of the annual budget.
Spending on social insurance and employment increased by 21.4 percent. Health care and family planning spending was up 19.2 percent.
