How are the government finances doing? The Finance Ministry released fiscal revenue figures on Friday.

First quarter fiscal revenue reached about 3.9 trillion yuan, up 6.5 percent from a year ago.  Tax revenue was about 3.3 trillion yuan, increasing 7.8 percent year on year. The central government's revenue increased 1.2 percent, lower than local government's 10.4 percent. Spending was nearly 3.8 trillion yuan, jumping 15.4 percent from a year earlier.

Growth in spending by local governments was 17.4 percent, much higher than that of the central government. Analysts say that due to low imports growth, the central government's fiscal revenue slowed, while local governments' revenue was driven up by a rebound in property sales and taxes. Spending on education, social security and employment all increased in the first quarter this year.