China private sector investment climbing again

The growth of China’s private-sector investment is expected to climb up to 10% in 2017 as rising producer prices help entrepreneurs shrug off a gloomy outlook, the South China Morning Post reports. In the first two months of this year, investment by privately businesses increased 6.7% to 24.98 trillion yuan (US$3.62 trillion), the first time since March 2016 that the figure exceeded 6%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. After posting a lackluster 3.2% year-on-year growth in 2016, private business investment is set to rebound to 6-10% this year, according to JP Morgan chief China economist Zhu Haibin. Slowing investment by privately owned companies has been one of the primary concerns for the mainland’s leadership since it reflected weaker business morale. Private-sector investment accounts for about 60% of the country’s total fixed-asset investment.