China's private investment up 5.7% in first 11 months

BEIJING — China's private fixed-asset investment recorded a slight slowdown in growth in the first 11 months of this year, but the overall investment structure has improved, official data showed Thursday.

In the first 11 months, fixed-asset investment (FAI) by the private sector grew 5.7 percent year-on-year to 34.81 trillion yuan ($5.27 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The growth rate was lower than the 5.8-percent increase for the first 10 months, the NBS said.

The amount accounted for 60.5 percent of the total FAI, compared with 60.6 percent for the January-October period.

Private investment to the primary sector rose 14 percent in the 11-month period, followed by an increase of 7.6 percent for the service sector and 3.2 percent for the secondary sector.

Growth in the country's total FAI also slowed in this period, growing 7.2 percent year-on-year, down from 7.3 percent for the January-October period.

FAI includes capital spent on infrastructure, property, machinery and other physical assets, but the bureau's calculation does not include FAI by farmers.

Despite a growth slowdown, China has continued to see structural improvement within FAI, the NBS said.

Rapid investment growth was seen in fields like high-tech and infrastructure, registering 15.9 percent and 20.1 percent growth respectively, while investment in energy-intensive sectors went down 2.3 percent, she said.

In the private sector, FAI for water conservation, environmental protection and public facility management jumped 23.5 percent, while that in mining dropped 19.3 percent year-on- year in the first 11 months.

The private sector contributes more than 60 percent of China's GDP growth and provides over 80 percent of jobs.

To stimulate private investment activity, the government has taken moves such as streamlining investment project approvals for private investors, encouraging them to participate in major projects and introducing mixed-ownership reform in State-owned enterprises.