China Ran Record Budget Deficit With Spending Blitz Amid Tariffs
(Bloomberg) -- China’s fiscal stimulus pushed its four-month budget deficit to a record high, as the government ramped up support for the economy during an escalation in its trade conflict with the US.
The broad deficit reached 2.65 trillion yuan ($367 billion) in January-April, the most ever for the period, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. The shortfall swelled by more than 50% compared with a year earlier.
It’s the clearest evidence yet that Beijing shifted into a higher gear in deploying this year’s planned fiscal stimulus to help the economy weather external shocks. US tariffs on most Chinese goods rose to a prohibitively high level of 145% in April before the two countries agreed to a truce earlier this month.
