BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China's fiscal spending expanded 2.6 percent year on year to 7.47 trillion yuan (about 1.09 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2026, with the budget execution pace hitting a five-year high, official data showed Friday.

Central government fiscal expenditure rose 4.9 percent, while local government expenditure increased 2.3 percent, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Spending in the first quarter accounted for 24.9 percent of the annual budget, the fastest pace of budget execution for the same period in five years, MOF official Wang Jianxun told a press conference on Friday.

Government bond issuance also moved ahead of schedule. In the first quarter, treasury bond issuance exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, up nearly 10 percent year on year, while newly issued special-purpose local government bonds reached 1.16 trillion yuan, up 20.8 percent.

He Daixin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the faster pace of spending reflects stepped-up fiscal efforts, which help boost market expectations and confidence.

Spending on key livelihood areas was well ensured, the ministry said. Social security and employment spending rose 9 percent year on year to 1.48 trillion yuan, while health expenditure jumped 12.1 percent to 655.4 billion yuan. Education spending also exceeded 1 trillion yuan in the first quarter.

Local governments have also rolled out concrete livelihood projects. Sichuan Province plans to invest 225.4 billion yuan in 34 livelihood programs, Beijing Municipality plans 102.7 billion yuan for 100 major projects, and Xizang Autonomous Region raised annual preschool education subsidies for farming and pastoral areas to 1,000 yuan per student.

"More financial resources have been tilted toward investing in people and improving people's well-being this year," He said.

Friday's data also showed that fiscal revenue rose 2.4 percent to 6.16 trillion yuan.

The central government collected about 2.5 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue during the period, up 2.7 percent year on year, and local governments collected 3.66 trillion yuan, up 2.1 percent.

Tax revenue during the period totaled 4.85 trillion yuan, up 2.2 percent, while non-tax revenue rose 2.9 percent to 1.31 trillion yuan.