Levy strike: Record budget deficit for Dragon

China's fiscal stimulus pushed its four-month budget deficit to a record high, as the government ramped up support for the economy during an escalation in its trade conflict with the US.

The broad deficit reached ¥2.65 trillion ($367 billion) in January-April, the most ever for the period, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. The shortfall swelled by more than 50% compared with a year earlier.

It's the clearest evidence yet that Beijing shifted into a higher gear in deploying this year's planned fiscal stimulus to help the economy weather external shocks. US tariffs on most Chinese goods rose to a prohibitively high level of 145% in April before the two countries agreed to a truce earlier this month.

Outlays soared against the backdrop of stabilizing earnings. Total income in China's two main fiscal books reached ¥9.32 trillion in January-April, a decline of only 1.3% year-on-year after a much steeper drop during the first quarter. Total expenditure rose 7.2% to ¥11.97 trillion , the data showed.