In the January-April period this year, total fixed asset investments (FAI) (excluding rural households) in China amounted to RMB 14.1293 trillion ($2.1 trillion), down 1.6 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This indicates a trend reversal since in the January-March quarter FAI rose by 1.7 percent year on year. This happened as the property market contracted even more than earlier, while there was weak domestic credit demand and also supply chain concerns.
In the first four months, total FAI in China's infrastructure increased by 4.3 percent year on year. Though the investments in infrastructure are still up on year-on-year basis, the growth rate has slowed down a lot from the 8.9 percent increase in the January-March quarter. This means that local governments paid more attention to raising funds towards paying off existing off-balance-sheet debt, while allocating less to infrastructure.
Fixed asset investments in China's mining sector and manufacturing sector in the given period increased by 11.1 percent and 1.2 percent year on year, respectively.
