Fixed-asset investment up

China's spending on fixed assets such as factories and warehouses grew 25.6 percent year-on-year in the first five months, as investment momentum continued to slow down.

The figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday is below the 25.9 percent increase in the same investments during the same period last year and is also lower than the 25.7 percent growth during the January- April period.

Investment growth was "sluggish", given that the government shortened a holiday from a year earlier, Goldman Sachs economists Liang Hong and Song Yu said in a research note.