China's urban fixed-asset investment growth slows

China's urban fixed-asset investment grew 17.9 percent year on year in the first two months of 2014, down from the 21.2 percent growth registered in the same period of last year, official data showed.

The growth rate was 1.7 percentage points lower than the full-year pace of 2013, as China's economy still faces downward pressure, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) unveiled on Thursday.

Urban fixed-asset investment amounted to 3.03 trillion yuan (494.13 billion U.S. dollars) during January and February, with the growth pace in February up 1.33 percentage points on a month-to-month basis.

Investment in the primary sector rose 20.9 percent year on year to 40.6 billion yuan in the Jan.-Feb. period, while investment in the secondary sector expanded to 1.17 trillion yuan, up 13.7 percent year on year.

In tertiary industry, investment increased to 1.82 trillion yuan, up 20.8 percent from the same period last year, the data showed.

Investment in China's central areas grew by 20.6 percent year on year, followed by 20 percent in the country's western parts and 16.5 percent in the east.

Investment from enterprises in the Chinese mainland jumped 19.2 percent year on year, while the growth rate of investment from foreign companies stood at 5.2 percent.

In the Jan.-Feb. period, fixed-asset investment from the private sector, accounting for 63.1 percent of total fixed-asset investment nationwide, grew 21.5 percent year on year to 1.91 trillion yuan.

The growth pace was 3.1 percentage points lower than that of the same period last year.