China 2015 property investment slows

BEIJING - The annual growth of China's property investment continued to cool to 1 percent in 2015, a sharp decrease from the 10.5-percent growth in 2014, official data showed on Tuesday.

The yearly reading was down from 1.3-percent growth for the first 11 months and 2-percent growth for the Jan.-Oct. period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The figure is part of the economic data released by the NBS on Tuesday which showed annual growth of the world's second largest economy slowed to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 and 6.9 percent for the whole year.

Investment in residential housing, which accounts for about two-thirds of the total property investment, edged up 0.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with a growth of 0.7 percent in the first 11 months.

New housing construction dropped 14 percent year on year in the year, with new residential housing construction declining 14.6 percent.

Slowing property investment, which used to be a main driver of the Chinese economy, has been seen as a drag on overall economic growth.