Chinese Minister of Finance Jin Renqing said China will cut budget deficit and the total volume of long-term treasure bonds for construction projects next year.

This constitutes part of the effort for China to pursue it's the prudent fiscal policy adopted by the central economic work conference over the weekend, the minister said.

He noted that China's budget deficit in the years ahead will stay around 300 billion yuan (US$36 billion).

With the on-going economic boom, the ratio of the country's budget deficit to its gross domestic product (GDP) will keep dropping, Jin acknowledged in an interview with the press earlier this week.

The ratio will drop to about 2 percent in 2005, the minister said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2004)