Urban fixed-asset investment rose 25.7 percent year-on-year to 2.841 trillion yuan (US$406 billion) in the first four months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

The growth figure represents a slight acceleration of 0.2 percentage point from the same period last year.

Investment in China's booming real estate sector grew 32.1 percent to 695.2 billion yuan, said the NBS.

The NBS reported earlier this week that inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, was up 8.5 percent year-on-year in April. The figure compared with 8.3 percent in March and a nearly 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February.

Another key inflation indicator, the producer price index, which measures the cost of goods when they leave the factory, surged 8.1 percent in April.

Primary industry (farming, fishing, forestry and the like) continued to grow the fastest among industrial sectors, expanding 71.6 percent during the first four months. It rose 31.1 percent for all of last year.

Investment in the secondary and tertiary industries rose 25.9 percent and 24.9 percent, respectively.

Analysts said that the 71-percent surge in primary industry investment was a positive sign as it showed that the government's move to shore up agricultural development was effective.

In the "No.1 Document" published in January, the government promised to greatly increase investment this year to promote agriculture and the rural economy and improve the lives of hundreds of million rural residents.

Investment by the central government expanded 14.8 percent year-on-year to 268 billion yuan and that by local governments was up 27 percent to 2.573 trillion yuan.

Investment in state-owned and state-controlled enterprises was 1.153 trillion yuan, up 16.9 percent.

The first four months saw the commencement of 59,676 projects, 7,993 more than in the same period last year. Planned investment in these new projects was 1.93 trillion yuan, down 5.1 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)