China's Urban Fixed-asset Investment up 26.6% in First Two Months

China's urban fixed assets investment leaped 26.6 percent year on year to 1.3 trillion yuan (190.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months, highlighted by a prominent increase in property investment, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.

Nationwide, real estate investment remained strong in the first two months, surging 31.1 percent year on year to 314.4 billion yuan, up 30.1 percentage points from the rate in the same period last year, the NBS said.

Investment in commercial housing jumped 32.8 percent to hit 223.3 billion yuan, accounting for 71 percent of the total, according to the NBS.

The growth rate of urban fixed assets investment in the first two months was 0.1 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year, according to the NBS.

Total investment in the primary sector (farming, fishing and forestry, among others) expanded 8.9 percent from a year earlier.

The industrial sector saw investment up 21 percent and the tertiary sector, or the service sector, which covers commerce, finance and services, registered a 30.9 percent growth.

Central government projects investment totaled 121.9 billion yuan, up 14 percent year on year, while investment by local authorities rose 28.1 percent to 1.2 trillion yuan, the NBS said.

China's new yuan-denominated lending in the first two months amounted to 2.09 trillion yuan (306 billion U.S. dollars), according to data released Thursday from the People's Bank of China, the central bank.