Spending on roads, railways will lift economy

Economists are hoping new infrastructure investment will inject vitality into the slowing Chinese economy, which is currently being held back by a lagging property market and continued overcapacity in the manufacturing industry.

The country's urban fixed-asset investment rose 13.5 percent year-on-year to 7.75 trillion yuan ($1.26 trillion) in the first quarter, compared with 13.9 percent in the January to February period, the slowest expansion since 2001, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

Yue Guoqiang, an investment expert at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research, under the National Development and Reform Commission, said relatively robust investment in infrastructure has acted as a buffer against any sharper slowdown in growth.