Infrastructure set to play crucial role

Investments to boost long-term growth momentum for rest of year

Infrastructure investment may further speed up in the rest of the year, which will help to stabilize the Chinese economy and inject long-term growth momentum, economists said.

"Infrastructure investment may see steady, moderate growth this year, with the full-year growth rate reaching 8 percent year-on-year for the optimistic case," said Yang Weiyong, an associate professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.