China's fixed-asset investment up 10.2% in Jan-Feb

BEIJING - China's fixed-asset investment grew 10.2 percent year on year to 3.8 trillion yuan ($586 billion) in the first two months of 2016.

Growth picked up slightly from the 10-percent increase recorded in 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.

It marked an end to several years of continuous deceleration in the growth of China's fixed-asset investment, money used to purchase and build factories, machines, property and other fixed facilities.

Investment slowdown is believed to be a major reason behind China's current weakness in demand and the main downside risk to the Chinese economy.

In breakdown, fixed-asset investment in agriculture was up 34.3 percent in the Jan-Feb period, followed by 11.1 percent for the service sector and 7.9 percent for industry.

Fixed-asset investment in eastern, central and western regions increased 9.7 percent, 12.5 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.

Investment in the northeast worsened with a 18.6-percent drop, compared with the 11.2-percent decrease in 2015.

Investment by foreign companies gained 6 percent year on year in the first two months, compared with the 2.8-percent decrease reported in 2015.

Funding growth for fixed-asset investment edged up 0.9 percent in the first two months to 5.93 trillion yuan, sharply lower than the 7.7-percent gain seen in 2015.

Of the total funds, the government budget for fixed-asset investment rose 10.9 percent, 4.7 percentage points lower than that in 2015.