China reported a fiscal deficit of 111 billion yuan (US$16.21 billion) in 2008.

The country's fiscal revenue reached 6.13 trillion yuan for the whole of 2008, up 19.5 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Monday in a statement posted on its website.

Meanwhile, fiscal spending last year increased 25.4 percent year on year to 6.24 trillion yuan.

The actual spending was 22.6 percent higher than planned in the budget fixed at the beginning of 2008, and the ministry attributed the increase mainly to extra-budgetary quake relief funds.

The MOF statement noted these are preliminary statistics and may be adjusted later.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2009)