China's budget deficit hits record $1.1 trillion on Covid zero slump

The lockdowns, testing and quarantine rules that were key to the Covid Zero policy put a strain on consumer and business spending, pushing the economy close to contraction in the second quarter

China’s broad budget deficit hit a record so far this year, showing how damaging the now abandoned Covid Zero policy and the ongoing housing slump have been to the economy and to the government’s finances.  

The augmented fiscal deficit was 7.75 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) in January to November, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the Ministry of Finance. That was more than double the same period last year and larger than in 2020, when the economy was battered by the initial Covid outbreak and growth was the slowest in decades.

The worsening deficit underscores just how