BEIJING -- County-level governments are facing financial challenges in the form of revenue shortages and poorly managed expenditures, Minister of Finance Xie Xuren said Wednesday.

Tougher reforms will be needed to increase county government revenues, Xie said while delivering a report at a bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.

County governments in some places have hired new staff too quickly and are not spending enough on public services, Xie said.