China’s Budget Deficit Hits Record $1.1 Trillion on ‘Zero Covid’ Slump

(Bloomberg) — China’s broad budget deficit hit a record so far this year, showing how damaging the now abandoned “zero-Covid” 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.