2nd LD-Writethru: China's 2017 investment slows, but new growth drivers rise

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's fixed-asset investment (FAI) grew 7.2 percent year-on-year in 2017, 0.3 percentage points slower than that recorded in the first three quarters, and 0.9 percentage points slower than a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

In 2017, the FAI was 63.17 trillion yuan (9.8 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the NBS.

Specially, private investment reached 38.15 trillion yuan, up 6 percent year on year, 2.8 percentage points faster than the previous year, accounting for 60.4 percent of the total investment.

The investment by the state holding enterprises reached 23.29 trillion yuan, a rise of 10.1 percent year on year.

The investment in the primary industry was 2.1 trillion yuan, up 11.8 percent year on year; the secondary industry stood at 23.58 trillion yuan, up 3.2 percent, among which the investment in manufacturing was 19.36 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.8 percent.

The investment in the tertiary industry was 37.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.5 percent, the NBS said.

Investment structure optimized in 2017, given the investment in the high-tech industry and equipment manufacturing surged 17 percent year-on-year and 8.6 percent year on year, 2.8 percentage points and 4.2 percentage points faster than the previous year, respectively.

In contrast, the investment in energy-intensive manufacturing decreased 1.8 percent year on year.

The funds in place for investment in fixed assets in 2017 totaled almost 63 trillion yuan, up 4.8 percent year on year.

The planned total investment in newly-started projects was 51.9 trillion yuan, increasing by 6.2 percent from a year earlier.

As the growth driver of investment slows, services and consumption have risen to take up the slack.

In 2017, the Index of Services Production increased by 8.2 percent year on year, 0.1 percentage point faster than the previous year.

From January to November, the business revenue of service enterprises above the designated size rose by 13.9 percent year on year, 2.5 percentage points higher than the same period in 2016.

The country's retail sales of consumer goods grew 10.2 percent year-on-year to reach 36.63 trillion yuan in 2017, according to the NBS.

Retail sales, especially strong online spending and growth in rural areas, have contributed significantly to China's economic growth as the country shifts to a consumer society from an investment and export-driven one.

Consumption contributed 58.8 percent of the country's economic expansion in 2017.

China's GDP grew 6.9 percent year-on-year in 2017, well above the official target of around 6.5 percent and higher than the 6.7 percent growth registered in 2016.

This also marked the first acceleration in annual GDP growth pace since 2010. Enditem