Ministry of Finance Photo: VCG

Chinese Minister of Finance Lan Fo'an pledged on Wednesday to accelerate the implementation of childcare subsidy policy, including gradually rolling out free pre-school education, and providing nursing subsidies for disabled elderly in the country.

Lan penned an article themed with making fiscal contributions to sustain China's economic growth, which appeared on Xuexi Shibao, or the Study Times, on Wednesday.

The minister emphasized the need to bolster expansion of domestic market demand to further improve economic circulation. This includes combining efforts to improve people's livelihoods with measures to boost domestic consumption, by strengthening elderly and health care services and introducing a national childcare subsidy system to improve social welfare and the households are willing to spend more.

In the first half of the year, a total of 162 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds was allocated in two batches to fund trade-in programs for major consumer goods, boosting sales of five key product categories to over 1.6 trillion yuan. At the same period, China's local governments issued 2.16 trillion yuan in special bonds, expanding local investment to back up construction of major infrastructure projects, Lan wrote.

Notably, Lan wrote that the Ministry of Finance is deepening the taxation system reform, including improving the fiscal transfer mechanism to boost local governments' financial autonomy.

Also, the ministry is exploring shifting some consumption tax collection to local authorities, optimizing value-added tax refund measure, and developing a set of tax rules suited to accommodate the emerging high-tech industries.

In the first half of 2025, China's overall public budget expenditure reached 14.1 trillion yuan, maintaining strong growing momentum. During the period, China's GDP expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year, with domestic demand contributing 68.8 percent, further reinforcing its role as the main driver of economic growth, the finance minister wrote.

Global Times