The NBS attributed the slower growth to weak demand, slower growth in mining sectors and industries with severe overcapacity as well as the rising prices of commodities.
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China’s fixed-asset investment growth eased to 10.5 percent year-on-year in the January-April period, missing market expectations of 10.9 percent, and down from the first quarter’s 10.7 percent.
China has faced growing worldwide pressure to tackle a colossal capacity glut in the steel sector, and aims to shut 100-150 million tonnes of surplus production in the coming five years. With such a glut, prices have plummeted, leaving many steelmakers worldwide in an hard position.
The area of property sold in the January to April period grew 36.5 percent, compared with 33.1 percent in January-March and the fastest since April 2013.
“We do not expect full-scale policy tightening as a result, just as we never expected Beijing to implement another massive stimulus programme”, Ms Yao wrote in a note to clients.
“Due to weak market demand, companies’ reluctance to invest and market entrance barriers, China’s private fixed-asset investment has been decelerating since the start of this year”, the statistics bureau said in a statement.
All the engines suddenly lost momentum. New-home sales gained 63.5 percent to 793.7 billion yuan ($122 billion) last month from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on NBS data.
The China Iron and Steel Association’s composite index, which tracks the price movements of six major Chinese steel products, rose from 69.81 to 84.66 over April, and has risen more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. Analysts had forecast sales would rise 10.5 percent on an annual basis, the same percentage increase as reported for March.
The People’s Daily newspaper, considered to be the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, on Monday quoted a source as sounding a warning over using credit to drive growth.
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The Asian giant’s economy grew 6.9 percent for all of previous year, its weakest in a quarter of a century.
