Shanghai has seen its commercial house prices were 1.2 percent lower in June than May, revealing the impact of macro-regulation by local authorities.

The figure was disclosed here Wednesday by a report on the first-half economic performance of Shanghai from the Shanghai Bureau of Statistics.

A total of 58.094 billion yuan (about US$7.02 billion) has been invested in the city's real estate sector from January to June, up 15.5 percent year-on-year. The growth rate is 4.9 percentage points lower from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, approximately 9.337 million square meters of residential houses have been sold, up 4.7 percent year-on-year. The growth rate was 9.5 percentage points lower from a year earlier.

Besides, second-hand residential houses with an aggregated areaof 11.644 million square meters were sold, up 10.8 percent year-on-year. The growth rate is 20.5 percentage points lower from a year earlier.

Pan Jianxin, director of the Shanghai Bureau of Statistics, said that the inflation-adjusted average price of Shanghai commercial houses over the first six months was 7,029 yuan (about US$849.94), up 12.6 percent year-on-year.

Ascribing the slower price increases to local authorities' macro-regulative policies implemented on June 1, Pan said that it would take a few more months to see the more obvious impact of the government policies.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2005)