China's fiscal revenue in August rose 36.1 percent over the same month last year to 523.75 billion yuan (76.68 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Finance said Friday.

It is the fourth month in a row China's monthly fiscal revenue has risen year on year, after it reported growth of 4.8 percent in May.

The ministry said the strong rebound was based on the relatively low basis in August last year, when fiscal revenue rose by a modest 10.2 percent in July.

The August figure brought the total fiscal revenue in the first eight months to 4.59 trillion yuan, representing an increase of 2.6 percent from the same period last year.

It is the first time this year accumulative fiscal revenue reported a growth over that in the same period last year.

Analysts said the strong rebound in the August figure was also backed up by a strengthened economic recovery, as indicated by latest economic data.

"Major economic data are suggesting a clearer trend in the consolidation in China's economic recovery," said National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Li Xiaochao.

Li was referring to an acceleration in the growth of the country's industrial output, investment and consumption in August, according to the figures released.

China's industrial output rose 12.3 percent in August from a year earlier, up from a gain of 10.8 percent in July. Urban fixed-asset investment rose 33 percent in the first eight months, up 0.1 percent from the first seven months.

Retail sales in China, the main measure of consumer spending, grew 15.4 percent in August, up by 0.2 percentage point from July.

The ministry also said that fiscal expenditure in August rose 17.4 percent from a year earlier to 473.71 billion yuan.

This brought the total fiscal expenditure in the first eight months to 3.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.7 percent compared with the same period last year.

China was facing great fiscal pressures, despite four months of revenue increases, the ministry said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2009)