NBS: China Jan-Aug FAI down 0.3%, property up 4.6%

Of the total Yuan 37.9 trillion ($5.6 trillion) FAI over the past eight months, the funding from the country's non-state-owned investors fell 2.8% on year to Yuan 21.5 trillion against the 5.7% on-year decrease over January to July, according to the NBS data, while the investment from the state-owned enterprises filled up the gap, posting a 3.2% on-year gain.

China's FAI growths over Aug 2019-Aug 2020 (cumulative number)

Source: NBS

As for all the economic sectors, the investment in the industrial sector including light and heavy industries was still the only one on decline, down 4.8% on year to Yuan 11.2 trillion until August, though the drop narrowed by 2.6 percentage points from the first seven months, according to the NBS data.

By the end of August, the funding in the infrastructure construction projects as part of the tertiary industry was down but by merely 0.3% on year, narrowing from the 1% on-year drop for the first seven months, according to the data.

Over January to August, the investment in the country's real estate market grew faster by 4.6% on year to Yuan 8.8 trillion against the 3.4% on-year rise in the first seven months, among which, that in the residential housing projects accounted for Yuan 6.5 trillion, or up 5.3% on year, according to the data.

All the key indicators in the real estate market suggested continuing improvement, as the decline in the newly-launched property projects in area, for example, narrowed by 0.9 percentage point from that for January-July to 3.6% on year in the past eight months or approximating 1.4 billion sq m, the data showed.

The property sales in size including commercial and residential housing dropped 3.3% on year to about 985 million sq m for January-August, against the 5.8% on-year drop over January-July, and the reduction in residential housing fell by 2.5% on year for the first eight months, according to NBS.

The new land leases over the past eight months totalled 119.5 million sq m, down 2.4% on year against the 1% on-year decline over the first seven months, indicating the developers' cautiousness in planning new property projects, the data suggested.

Written by Venus Wang, wangyi@mysteel.com

Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com