China's urban fixed assets investment totaled 7.216 trillion yuan (US$1.05 trillion) in the first seven months, up 27.3 percent from the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.

The figure represented a slight acceleration, of 0.5 percentage points over the first half figures and of 0.7 percentage points over the figures for the same period in 2007.

Investment in the booming real estate sector grew 30.9 percent to 1.58 trillion yuan, according to the NBS. The growth rate was 2.6 percentage points lower than that of the first half.

Wang Tongsan, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that with the overall stable growth of fixed assets investment, the country could actively respond to uncertainties and risks in the economy and maintain a stable and relatively high economic growth rate.

According to the NBS, the growth rate in the primary sector (farming, fishing, forestry) was the fastest among the three major sectors in the first seven months, up 61.9 percent, compared with the secondary sector at 27.9 percent and the tertiary sector at 26 percent.

"The 61.9 percent surge in investment in primary industry was a good sign as the government moved to shore up agricultural development and the foundation of the national economy," Wang said.

Statistics from the NBS showed investment in projects authorized by the central government rose by 25.3 percent in the first seven months over the same period of 2007. In local government-approved projects, investment expanded by 27.5 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)