The reputed Chinese financial magazine Caixin (March 15) reported that Beijing has announced big tax cuts for businesses.  It calculated that half of the proposed RMB 2 trillion in tax cuts will be borne by local governments. Caixin said “Of the 30 provincial-level governments that had published their budgets for this year as of this week, 23 announced lower revenue targets than they had in 2018.” It added that “14 have projected that fiscal revenue growth won’t even keep up with GDP growth.” Caixin also said the central government "has also asked all local authorities to reduce their general spending — the day-to-day expenditures of government agencies — by more than 5% “ and plans to attempt to force state-owned enterprises to contribute more profits to government coffers. Caixin calculates that these steps are, however, unlikely to make up for the shortfall.

(Comments: The measures will put pressure on already cash-strapped local governments.)