China's fixed assets investment in urban regions rose by 26.6 percent year-on-year to 5.67 trillion yuan (747 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.
The growth figure is 3.9 percentage points lower than that for the January-July period of last year.
Investment in real estate sector reached 1.21 trillion yuan, up 28.9 percent, while the investment by state owned enterprises came to 2,431.7 billion yuan, up 16.5 percent.
Among the industries, investment in the primary industry enjoyed a 46.2-percent growth to 66.5 billion yuan and that of the secondary industry rose by 28.9 percent to 2.55 trillion yuan. The tertiary industry witnessed an increase of 24.5 percent to 3.05 trillion yuan.
The non-metallic minerals sector saw a 48.8-percent increase year on year; investment in coal mining grew 17.2 percent; and energy was up 12.6 percent.
After maintaining a relatively stable level in the January-April period, fixed asset investment began to bounce back in May as the January-May figure soared 25.9 percent, compared with 25.5 percent in the first four months and 24 percent for the whole of 2006.
For the first half of this year, the figure was 26.7 percent. Figures for July alone was not provided.
The NBS this week released several figures that provide a general pattern of China's economy which grew 11.9 percent in the second quarter.
Chinese retail sales in July rose 16.4 percent year-on-year to reach 699.8 billion yuan (92 billion U.S. dollars), according to the bureau.
Another major economic barometer - consumer price index (CPI)- rose by a 33-month-high 5.6 percent in July on food price hikes compared with the same period of last year, said the bureau.
Signs of cooling investment may have emerged in the industrial production sector. The country's industrial output growth mitigated to 18 percent in July from the same month a year ago. In June, industrial output had seen a rise of 19.4 percent from a year earlier.
A central bank report published before the release of these figures warned that China's economy remains on the brink of overheating following another 12 months of soaring industrial output and money supply.
To keep prices stable, the government should continue to subsidize farmers, postpone price reforms on water, power and gas and tighten supervision of commodities related to people's livelihood, including food, education and medical care, said the report.
The government should also increase the minimum living allowance of low-income families and set up a temporary assistance system in order to prevent their living standards from falling as prices rise, it added.
China's economy may expand slightly slower in the second half of 2007 than the first half, said Fan Jianping, forecasting department chief of the center under the National Development and Reform Commission.
He said the GDP would likely grow by 11.3 percent this year.
China's GDP expanded 11.9 percent in the second quarter this year, lifting first-half growth to 11.5 percent
Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went down to close at 4770.44 points in the morning session, down 99.44 points from the previous close partly on investors' worry of further tightening policies.
Despite a range of tightening measures, China's gross domestic product was 11.5 percent higher in the first half than the same period of the previous year, half a percentage point up for the 2006 first-half rise.
The nation has raised the one-year benchmark deposit and lending rates by 27 basis points to 3.33 percent and 6.84 percent respectively, and elevated the reserve requirement ratio on six occasions to curb excess liquidity.
<i>Source: Xinhua</i>
Source: Xinhua
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