China's fixed-asset investment growth slows

BEIJING - China's investment in fixed assets rose 8.9 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2017, down from 9.2 percent in the first quarter, official data showed Monday.

Total investment from January to April stood at 14.43 trillion yuan ($2.1 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its website.

On a month-on-month basis, investment growth in April was 0.71 percentage points faster than that of March.

Investment in the industrial sector rose only 3.5 percent in the first four months, a main drag on total investment growth. The agricultural sector saw investment up by 19.1 percent, while investment in the service sector rose 12.1 percent.

The country's infrastructure investment surged 23.3 percent in the same period to 2.98 trillion yuan. Property development investment rose 9.3 percent to 2.77 trillion yuan.

Private sector investment grew 6.9 percent in the first four months to 8.81 trillion yuan, accounting for 61 percent of the total, the statement said.

The bureau's calculation does not include fixed-asset investment by farmers. It includes projects with planned investment of more than 5 million yuan, as well as all property development projects.