Urban FAI slows

Urban fixed-asset investment (FAI) growth dropped more than six percentage points compared with June, the South China Morning Post reported. The National Bureau of Statistics does not publish single-month FAI data, only providing accumulated figures, but a bureau spokesman told the paper urban FAI grew 27.4% year-on-year in July, down from 33.5% growth in June and the 31.3% average growth recorded across the first six months of the year. Growth for the first seven months of the year hit 30.5%. Investment in central government projects rose 26% to US$57.8 billion in the first seven months of the year, while investment in local government projects rose 31.1% to US$502.6 billion, the bureau announced. Meanwhile, China's cabinet, in an unusually tough message, warned regional officials that any attempt to dilute the effects of macro-economic policies would not be tolerated.