China urges local govt to quicken spending to boost economy

BEIJING, May 28 (Reuters): China urged local governments on Wednesday to quicken the pace of budgetary spending to guarantee construction of key projects and boost the slowing economy.
The finance ministry also said local fiscal agencies must finish allocating 2014 budget money by the end of June, or risk the money being called back by the central government by the end of September.
"The move is to further push ahead economic structural reforms, improve people's livelihood and make the fiscal spending an important boost to the economy," the ministry said in a statement on its website, www.mof.gov.cn
It also said the central government would consider cutting next year's budget quota for those local departments which failed to spend the amount allocated for this year.
"We noticed problems that the fiscal payment is relatively slow, with large amounts of budget money being carried over to next year, which leaves a big amount of treasury deposits in the coffers," it added.