China's fixed asset investment in urban areas reached 4477.1 billion yuan (US$560) in the first seven months of the year, up 30.5 percent over the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

The growth figure is 3.3 percentage points higher than for the January-July period of last year.

Investment in projects authorized by the central government hit 462 billion yuan, up 26 percent over the same period last year. However, projects getting the green light from local governments topped 4.01 trillion yuan, a sharp increase of 31.1 percent.

Investment in the coal mining industry grew 42.5 percent, the power industry was up 16.4 percent and railway transport 84.7 percent. Investment in the nonmetal sector went up 50.0 percent, ferrous metal investments increased 7.6 percent and non-ferrous metal 40.4 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2006)