China has channeled 497.9 billion yuan (US$72.9 billion) of central investment by September for the stimulus package to shore up the economy, a senior official has said.

The figure accounted for 42.2 percent of the total amount of 1.18 trillion yuan central budget earmarked to boost the recovery, Ding Xuedong, vice minister of China's Ministry of Finance, said Friday while attending a seminar.

The government unveiled a 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package in November last year to be spent over the next two years to bolster the world's fastest-growing economy, with 1.18 trillion yuan from the central budget.

"The government has adopted an active fiscal policy to cope with the global financial crisis in the past year, which proved to be effective," Ding said.

China's fiscal expenditure grew at a faster pace of 23 percent year on year for the first 10 months this year to 4.99 trillion yuan, triple the pace of revenue growth, according to figures revealed by the ministry on Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2009)