28 Provinces Report Fiscal Self-Sufficiency Below 100% in Q1 2026; Zhejiang Leads at 96.1%

A chart titled 'Fiscal Revenue and Expenditure of 28 Provinces in the First Quarter of 2026' shows that all 28 provinces that have disclosed their first-quarter fiscal data had fiscal self-sufficiency rates below 100%. The fiscal self-sufficiency rate is defined as the ratio of a region's general public budget revenue to its general public budget expenditure. According to the chart, Zhejiang recorded the highest rate at 96.1%, while the coastal provinces of Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Fujian, Shandong, and Guangdong all exceeded 70%. Half of the provinces reported rates below 50%, with Tibet at the bottom at 13.8%.

Tang Zaifu, deputy director of the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, responded at a press conference that local general public budget revenue is only one of the sources of expenditure, and that a fiscal self-sufficiency rate below 100% is normal. He noted that although local rates are below 100%, the central government has increased transfer payments to local governments, enabling local finances to achieve balance.

According to Ministry of Finance data, the average local fiscal self-sufficiency rate was approximately 55% in 2015 and fell to about 50% in 2025, a decline of about five percentage points over ten years. In the first half of 2026, China's individual income tax grew 13.1% year-on-year, securities transaction stamp duty surged 97.3%, and revenue from state-owned land-use rights transfer dropped 31.5%. Tang Zaifu stated that in the first half of 2026, the central government had disbursed RMB 9.4 trillion in transfer payments to local governments, accounting for 90.3% of the full-year budget.