China's Economic Data for Jan-Feb, 2021. Graphic: Jin Jianyu and Chen Xia/GT

 
The fixed asset investment in China shot up by 35 percent in the first two months of 2021, compared with a 24.5 percent slump in the same period last year, thanks to the accelerating investment into high-tech industries and social welfare sectors, as the country’s economy has returned to its normalcy.

From January to February, China's fixed asset investment hit 4.523 trillion yuan ($695 billion), a year-on-year increase of 35 percent and 3.5 percent higher than the same period of 2019 with the two-year average growth rate of 1.7 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figures tell of a very strong growth in investment, particularly in the fields where effort is needed to make up for past vulnerabilities, indicating the key role of investment in optimizing the country’s supply side structure, said Liu Aihua, a spokesperson of NBS.

Growth has been accelerated by investment in high-tech industry which has soared 50.1 percent year-on-year, of which, investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech service industry were up 50.3 percent and 49.8 percent respectively.

The investment in computer and office equipment manufacturing shot up by 99.5 percent while on medical equipment and instrument manufacturing were up by 66.6 percent.

For the high-tech service industry, the investment in e-commerce service industry and R&D design service industry climbed by 88.4 percent and 85.3 percent respectively.

The investment in social welfare sector rose 48.0 percent year-on-year, with investment in health and education up by 63.0 percent and 53.0 percent respectively.

The central government has drummed up the core position of tech innovation in the industrial structure which has brought vigor to the market, which helped raise the investment in strategic industrial lines, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics told the Global Times on Monday.

“The accelerated growth in high tech industries including computers, medical equipment, new energy generation and biomedical industry reflects that in the future, information and high-tech industry is the direction of industrial upgrade,” Cong said.

Liu noted that the investment in manufacturing industry is recovering slowly despite the fact that the pandemic has been effectively controlled in China.

According to NBS data, manufacturing investments were up by 37.3 percent thanks to a low base in 2020

“Recovery momentum for manufacturing is on the climb, restricted by enterprises' investment ability. As the pressure of pandemic prevention and control still exists, and the overseas environment is complex, it may take some time for the manufacturing investment to recover fully,” Liu said.

To break it down, the investments in the primary industry climbed 61.3 percent, in the secondary industry rose 34.1 percent, and the investment in the tertiary industry rose 34.6 percent.

Global Times