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China's total fixed-asset investments up 30.1% in 2009

By Xin Zhiming and Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-21 10:07

China's total fixed-asset investments rose 30.1 percent year-on-year to 22.48 trillion yuan ($3.29 trillion) in 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

The rate of increase was 4.6 percentage points higher than the same period of 2008.

Urban fixed-asset investment rose 30.5 percent from a year earlier to 19.41 trillion yuan. The growth rate was 4.4 percentage points higher than that for 2008.

Fixed-asset investment in rural areas totaled 3.07 trillion yuan, up 27.5 percent from a year ago, and 6 percentage points higher than the growth rate in 2008.

Among urban fixed-asset investment, the growth rate in the primary sector (farming, fishing and forestry, among others) climbed 49.9 percent from a year earlier.

The industrial sector saw investment up 26.8 percent and the tertiary sector, or the service sector, which covers commerce, finance and services, posted a 33.0 percent growth.

China unveiled a 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package in November of 2008 to accelerate the economic growth which slowed to 6.1 percent in the first quarter of last year due to tumble in exports. The 4 trillion yuan stimulus plan included 1.8 trillion yuan which was scheduled to be used to build more railroads, highways, airports and other infrastructures.

The record bank lending and government spending had boosted the growth of the fixed-asset investment, Jing Ulrich, managing director and chairman of China Equities and Commodities of J.P. Morgan, said in a report.

She expected the growth would slow in 2010 as the government put restrictions on new projects investment. The investment would focus on projects that have began, she added.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong said in December that the government would intensify management over projects approval and reject expansion projects of docks, slipways from existing shipbuilding enterprises, and new capacity building and expansion projects in aluminum electrolysis and steel sectors in three years.

Xinhua contributed to the story