China's fixed-asset investment up 8.9% in Jan-Feb

BEIJING - China's fixed-asset investment (FAI) grew 8.9 percent year on year to 4.1378 trillion yuan ($598.3 billion) in the first two months this year, up from 8.1 percent in 2016, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

Fixed-asset investment includes capital spent on infrastructure, property, machinery and other physical assets.

FAI by state-owned enterprises climbed 14.4 percent year on year during the period, according to the NBS.

Private sector FAI, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the total FAI, grew 6.7 percent in the first two months, accelerating from 3.2 percent in 2016 and marking the fastest growth since March 2016.

In the agricultural sector, fixed-asset investment jumped the fastest, up 19.1 percent year on year. It was followed by 12.2 percent growth for the service sector and 2.9 percent for the industrial sector, the NBS data showed.

Infrastructure investment expanded 27.3 percent in the first two months, while FAI in high-tech industries surged 18.4 percent during the period, according to NBS data.

Other indicators released by the NBS included industrial production and retail sales, pointing to stabilization in the world's second-largest economy.