China's transport infrastructure investment climbs in Jan-May

BEIJING -- China's investment in transport infrastructure climbed 7.3 percent in the first five months of the year to top 1.01 trillion yuan (about $147.8 billion), official data showed Tuesday.

The pace of growth was 6.6 percentage points faster than that for the whole year of 2018, according to the Ministry of Transport.

In breakdown, the country's investment into the building of roads and waterway infrastructure rose 4.8 percent to 753.7 billion yuan during the January-May period, accounting for 41.9 percent of the annual target set for 2019, Wu Chungeng, the ministry spokesperson, told a press conference.

The country's railway infrastructure investment increased 12.6 percent year on year during the period, while that of civil aviation infrastructure surged 39.5 percent from one year earlier, Wu said.

The figure came as the country's fixed-asset investment posted a lower growth, whose increase dipped to 5.6 percent in the first five months from 5.1 percent in the first four months.