Local governments reliance on land sales deepens

Chinese local governments' land sale revenue surged by 40.3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, while fiscal revenue only grew 9.3 percent in the same period, according to the Ministry of Finance on Thursday.

Land sale revenue jumped 40.3 percent year-on-year to 1.08 trillion yuan ($173 billion), which accounted for 55.4 percent of the 1.95 trillion yuan public fiscal revenue of local governments.

The Finance Ministry said that, as economic growth slows, public fiscal revenue growth could further slide in the coming months.

That could exacerbate local governments' fiscal conditions as growth in land sale revenue, the most important financial source for local governments, would also fall due to the distressed housing market, experts said.