China trimmed its government spending for the seventh straight month, before policymakers delivered a modest package of additional stimulus to ensure the economy hits Beijing’s annual growth target.

A measure of broad budget expenditure fell 3.7% in September from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Ministry of Finance data released on Friday. Broad revenue declined 3.5%.

That led the fiscal deficit to contract 3.8% in September. In the first nine months of the year, broad spending exceeded income by 7.57 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion).

Tight fiscal conditions have been a major drag on China’s economy this year, failing to give domestic demand a boost as booming exports continued to power growth. The cutbacks could ease up in the coming few months as major national projects, including the Six Networks initiative, get underway and Beijing rolls out additional support recently approved to bolster investment.

Chinese policymakers delivered a string of fresh measures to support economic growth over the fast few weeks, including mortgage subsidies for qualified home buyers and an additional 550 billion yuan of bonds local governments are allowed to sell. The new stimulus came after officials accelerated the implementation of previously planned policies in recent months, such as 800 billion yuan in funding provided via state-owned policy banks to shore up investment.

Growth in the world’s second-largest economy edged up to 4.5% in the third quarter after sliding below Beijing’s annual target of 4.5%-5% in the prior three months. The slump in fixed-asset investment persisted into another month while the contraction in infrastructure spending deepened a tad. Economists broadly expect the pullback in outlays on infrastructure to narrow going forward on the back of stronger government support.