China's central government will this year spend less on overseas visits, vehicles and receptions, popularly known as the "three public consumptions," said the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.

The central government will spend 6.31 billion yuan (about 970 million U.S. dollars) on such items in 2016, slightly down from last year.

This year's budget includes 2.027 billion yuan for overseas travel - an increase of 89 million yuan from 2015 -- 3.441 billion yuan for government vehicles (down 18 million yuan) and 842 million yuan for receptions (down 77 million).

In 2015, the central government avoided the use of 943 million yuan on these items compared with the budget.

Spending in these areas has long been a controversial issue because of misuse of public money.

The central government first published these figures in 2011 and has been working to increase transparency ever since.

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