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 totaled 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.
