The growth rate in property development investment in Beijing slowed by 1.2 percent year on year in the first half of this year but the input made up 53 percent of the city's total fixed-assets investment.

The deceleration comes alongside the government's efforts to cool down property development across the country, particularly in Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang Province.

According to the latest data provided by the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, 64.01 billion yuan (8 billion U.S. dollars) went to the real estate sector in Beijing between January and June, a growth of 20.8 percent over last year.

The total fixed-assets investment in the city amounted to 120.7 billion yuan (15.1 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half year, up 23.6 percent. The growth rate was 9.2 percent higher than the year before but 6.2 percent lower than the national average.

Yu Xiuqin, deputy head of the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, said that though the property development input's proportion of Beijing's total fixed-assets investment remained high, it saw a downturn from 58.3 percent in 2004 to 53 percent for the past six months. It will take time to slow down the development of the real estate sector, Yu added.

Source: Xinhua