China’s Slowing Revenue Gains Seen Limiting Spending

China’s government spent more than planned in the first nine months of the year, and revenue gains moderated, leaving little room for public outlays to stoke the economy this quarter without an expansion of the budget.

Fiscal revenue rose 10.9 percent in January-to-September from a year earlier to 9.06 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion), compared with a 29.5 percent gain in the same period in 2011, Ministry of Finance data showed this month. Spending in the January-September period rose 21.1 percent, higher than the targeted 14.1 percent rise for the full year, leaving a surplus of about half last year’s level.