BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's 2008 fiscal revenue is expected to exceed 6 trillion yuan (about 857 billion U.S. dollars), Finance Minister Xie Xuren told a national conference Monday.

This represented a year-on-year increase of 19 percent, comparing with a 32.4 percent growth in 2007.

The country's fiscal revenue increase started to decline in the second half of 2008 because of economic slowdown, corporate profits decline and tax cuts to boost growth amid the global financial crisis, Xie said.

He expected the downward trend to continue in 2009, which wouldmake it "a difficult fiscal year" marked by falling revenue growthand surging expenditure.

The central government has decided to carry out an active fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy in 2009. It has unveiled a four trillion-yuan economic stimulus package to boost growth through enhancing domestic demand.

The country's fiscal revenue rose 20.5 percent year-on-year to 5.8 trillion yuan in the first 11 months last year. The expenditure also increased in the first 11 months, up 23.6 percentto nearly 4.6 trillion yuan.

Fiscal revenue dropped 3.1 percent in November from a year earlier.

In October, the country reported 532.9 billion yuan in fiscal revenue, down 0.3 percent year-on-year, the first decline in 12 years.

According to Xie, reform and development in rural areas would be one of the government's major tasks in 2009. Financial support will be reinforced for farmers, agricultural production and rural areas this year.

The central budget has channeled 102.77 billion yuan in subsidies for farmers in 2008, more than doubled from a year earlier.

The government will continue to optimize the structure of fiscal expenditure this year, spending more money to improve people's quality of life, Xie said.

The country's fiscal expenditure on education is expected to reach 158.2 billion yuan in 2008, up 47 percent from 2007, while that on medical and health care will increase 25.5 percent year-on-year to 83.36 billion yuan. A forecast 276.16 billion yuanis spent to improve social welfare and employment last year, increasing nearly 20 percent.

The government would also spend more money to help boost employment this year, he said.