Another pay rise for 45 million government employees is in the pipeline, to add to the first year-end bonus they received at the end of last month, according to Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng.
Xiang said another pay rise for civil servants is also in the pipeline for this year.
The bonus payments, which followed salary rises last January and October, swelled the government payroll bill by nearly 40 percentlast year.
The beneficiaries are staff working at public institutions such as libraries and schools as well as civil servants.
Last January's pay rise alone added an average 100 yuan (US$12) per month to the wallets of civil servants.
Xiang told a press conference: "Our fiscal revenue has remained healthy, so the pay rise will not increase the budget deficit."
Increasing the salaries of civil servants is part of China's efforts to boost domestic consumption, the minister said.
Domestic consumption is the largest contributor to the growth of China's gross domestic product, expected to hit 7.3 percentthis year.
(China Daily January 7, 2002)
