China is struggling to meet its target of 7 <g data-gr-id="36">per cent</g> growth rate this year, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Sunday, citing slowdown of revenue growth. The central treasury received 2.95 trillion yuan (about $475 billion) from January to May, <g data-gr-id="30">an year-on-year</g> increase of 2 per cent, Lou said while briefing lawmakers on a State Council report on the final accounts for 2014.
The increase is far below the previously budgeted growth rate of 5 <g data-gr-id="19">per cent</g>.
Total national fiscal revenue reached 6.43 trillion yuan in the same period of time, up 3.1 <g data-gr-id="24">per cent</g> year-on-year. Lou attributed the "receding" fiscal revenue to an unfavourable <g data-gr-id="25">macro economic</g> status quo - the widely touted "new normal".
The economy grew 7.4 <g data-gr-id="20">per cent</g> in 2014, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years.
This year's growth target is set at approximately 7 per cent.
The government has resorted to reform in <g data-gr-id="23">hope</g> of stronger growth and structural optimisation, Lou said.
"With the new growth engines still in the making, external demand contracting with internal contradictions aggregating, there has been considerable downward pressure on the economy," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.