China's electronics and information industry reported a notable fall in fixed asset investment growth in the first five months, according to a statement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

More than 118 billion yuan (17.4 billion U.S. dollars) was invested in the industry's projects, valued at more than five million yuan each, during the Jan.-May period, up 16.5 percent year on year.

But the growth was 2.7 percentage points lower than the same period last year and six percentage points lower than in the first four months.

More projects, 1,463 new projects, were launched in the first five months, up 21.8 percent from a year ago. New projects mainly concentrated on sectors of optical and electric components, electronic equipment, mobile telecommunications equipment and optical fiber.

The planned investment of those new projects totaled 136 billion yuan, up 68 percent year on year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2009)