Fixed asset investment records slower growth

China's fixed-asset investments grew more than expected in 2017, but recorded the slowest annual growth pace since 2000 as authorities stepped up efforts to rein in local government debt and financial leverage continued to fall, official data showed on Thursday.

By the end of last year, the country's fixed-asset investment reached 63.17 trillion yuan ($9.83 trillion), up 7.2 percent year-on-year, the lowest rate since 2000, the National Bureau of Statistics said at a news briefing. The growth rate was down from 8.1 percent in 2016 and 10 percent in 2015.

Investments in the private sector, which was 60.4 percent of the total, increased by 6 percent from a year earlier, and it was 2.8 percentage points higher than that in 2016, the NBS said.