Planner: Grain areas up; fixed assets slow
By Huan Xin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-26 05:59

There is little space for an increase in the price of grain, but prices for agricultural production materials such as fertilizers keep rising. Coupled with severe natural disasters, this squeezes farmers' profit margins.

With regard to investment, the minister said a batch of projects were suspended due to their violation of land and environmental protection statutes and industrial policies, but investment policy favoured agriculture, manufacture, railway transport and health sectors.

As a result, investment in fixed assets in urban areas had expanded by 27.2 per cent in the first seven months of this year, down 3.9 percentage points year-on-year.

Thanks to enhanced regulations in the real estate sector, investment in property had grown 23.5 per cent by July, down 5.1 percentage points from the same period last year, he said.

For the rest of the year, the minister said the country will support the building of more affordable housing while putting a ceiling on construction of upscale housing.