China's fiscal operations remain stable, orderly in 2025: report

China's fiscal operations remained stable and orderly in 2025, with satisfactory budget execution, according to a fiscal policy execution report released by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday.

China's general public budget revenue hit 21.6 trillion yuan (about 3.14 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, with tax revenue registering positive growth, said the report.

Expenditure in the national general public budget totaled 28.7 trillion yuan, ensuring spending in key areas such as social security and employment, education, and healthcare.

In compliance with the requirement for Party and government offices to tighten their belts, budgets for spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality decreased by 5 percent compared to that in 2024, ensuring more effective use of government funds.

In terms of measures to boost consumption, efforts were made to expand the scope of consumer goods trade-in program, and provide interest subsidies for consumer loans, according to the report.

Data showed that by the end of 2025, the balance of personal consumption loans from 23 lending institutions approached nearly 6 trillion yuan, an increase of over 500 billion yuan, or 10.2 percent, compared to that in 2024.

The institutions issued more than 2 trillion yuan in loans to over 1.4 million entities in the service sector, supporting them in upgrading consumer infrastructure, and enhancing their service supply.

In terms of efforts to increase investment, the ceiling for new local government special-purpose bonds was set at 4.4 trillion yuan in 2025, an increase of 500 billion yuan from the previous year, the report said.

These funds were primarily channeled into sectors such as transportation infrastructure, government-subsidized housing projects and urban renewal projects, and infrastructure for forward-looking, strategic emerging industries.

In total, more than 48,000 projects were supported and over 300 billion yuan was used as project capital.

Furthermore, the proactive fiscal policy in 2025 played a vital role in fostering the deep integration of sci-tech and industrial innovation, advancing urban-rural integration and regional coordination, and ensuring and improving people's livelihoods, according to the report.

China's fiscal operations remain stable, orderly in 2025: report

China's fiscal operations remain stable, orderly in 2025: report

China's fiscal operations remain stable, orderly in 2025: report

China's fiscal operations remain stable, orderly in 2025: report

China's fiscal operations remain stable, orderly in 2025: report

Africa is feeling the pinch of the spillover effects of tensions in the Middle East, said United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Kenya capital Nairobi on Monday.

On Monday, Guterres and Kenyan President William Ruto jointly launched the expansion project for the UN office at Nairobi.

At the ceremony, he said that the deteriorating situation in the Middle East is having an increasingly severe negative impact on Africa.

"Africa is a driver of solutions, a source of innovation and the voice of moral clarity in our shared pursuit of peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights," he said.

He mentioned that many African countries are being severely affected by the ongoing situation in the Strait of Hormuz, particularly by the impact of sharp increases in energy and fertilizer prices.

Guterres also stressed how conflicts in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz directly threaten African stability, noting that 13 percent of the continent's imports -- mainly oil and fertilizers -- pass through this vital waterway.

He said four in five African countries are net oil importers, and any prolonged disruption to global supply chains would severely worsen their economic vulnerability.

That is why de-escalation is urgent. Navigational rights and freedoms must be restored. The Strait of Hormuz must reopen fully and safely. All parties must refrain from any action that could widen the conflict, and diplomacy must be given every chance, Guterres said.

He said the UN is deepening its engagement with Africa amid growing turbulence in the international order to advance peace, sustainable development, and climate justice.

Spillover effects of Middle East crisis affecting Africa: Guterres