BEIJING, April 15 -- China's fiscal revenue increased in the first quarter as the broader economy shows signs of stabilizing, official data showed on Friday.

Fiscal revenue rose 6.5 percent year on year to 3.89 trillion yuan (607.8 billion U.S. dollars) during January-March, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The growth was 0.7 percentage points higher than in the whole of last year, and was inching slightly faster than that recorded in the first two months.

In the first quarter, fiscal spending surged 15.4 percent to 3.8 trillion yuan. The growth of local government spending outpaced that of central government expenditure.

With the broader economy slowing, China's fiscal revenue logged its slowest pace since 1988 last year.

GDP expanded 6.7 percent in the first quarter this year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Friday.