Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing said Tuesday in Beijing that China's fiscal revenue reached 2.64 trillion yuan (about 320.7 billion US dollars) in 2004.

The figure represented a yearly increase of 21.6 percent over that in 2003, and fulfilled 112 percent of the budget.

The fiscal revenue for central budget hit 1.51 trillion yuan (around 182.7 billion US dollars), increasing by 16.9 percent over the previous year.

The fiscal revenue has completed 109.3 percent of the budget, said Jin.

China reported a yearly deficit of 319.177 billion yuan (around 38.6 billion US dollars) in 2004 after balancing out fiscal revenue and expenditure in central budget.

The deficit was 653 million yuan (about 79 million US dollars) less than the figure of 319.83 billion yuan as approved by the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

By People's Daily Online