The growth of spending in Shanghai's fixed assets kept a steady
momentum in the third quarter, according to data from the Shanghai
Statistics Bureau yesterday.
But the growth balanced a drop in investment in the property
development sector.
Urban fixed-asset investment rose 7.4 percent year on year in
the nine months through September to 311.89 billion yuan (US$41.57
billion). The rate slowed by 0.3 percentage points from the first
eight months to August.
"The situation can be summarized by a declining input in the
property sector and strong spending in urban infrastructure
construction, as well as a dynamic industrial sector," said Shen
Shaohua, an analyst with the bureau.
Investment in property development reduced 3.6 percent compared
with the same period last year to 96.66 billion yuan. Its
proportion of total investment fell by 3.5 percentage points to 31
percent.
It was the third drop this year after the property sector
slipped by 1.5 percent in July and slid 6.3 percent in August.
The outcome was no surprise after the government tightened rules
for real estate developers to cool an overheated sector, including
raising interest rates and raising the threshold for developers to
borrow money from banks, analysts said.
Investment in urban infrastructure construction grew 33.3
percent year on year to reach 97.99 billion yuan. The spending was
bolstered mainly by construction of traffic facilities, including
building four Metro lines, the Hongqiao traffic hub and the
expansion of Pudong International Airport.
Industrial investment rose 11.2 percent to 98.46 billion yuan in
the period, with a comparatively faster growth in spending on steel
and vehicle production.
Investment in the steel sector reached 19.13 billion yuan,
surging 27.4 percent during the nine months, while spending in the
auto sector jumped 17.6 percent to 5.18 billion yuan.
(Shanghai Daily October 23, 2007)
