North Carolina spent more than $1.3 billion on economic development last year, according to a recently released annual report from the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division.

The vast majority of that spending -- more than 92 percent -- came in the form of tax expenditures, including tax exemptions for goods, services and equipment.

Sales tax exemptions accounted for nearly $700 million, with the bulk of those exemptions going to sales to farmers ($244 million), purchases of mill machinery ($178 million) and packaging costs for manufacturers and retailers ($120 million).

A German company that makes products used in the auto industry plans to locate its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Shelby.

KSM Castings NC plans to hire 189 people by the end of 2018. It will build a 110,000 square foot production facility and invest more than $45 million in the Cleveland County operations, according to press release from the N.C. Department of Commerce.

If it meets hiring and investment goals, the company could receive as much as $705,000 from the state's One North Carolina Fund, and as much as $2.86 million in Job Development Investment Grants.