China’s fixed asset investment in the first quarter of 2009 rose 28.8 per cent year-on-year to Rmb2,810bn, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The growth rate was 4.2 percentage points higher than the year before.

Many of the investment projects that form part of the Rmb4,000bn stimulus package announced last November are now coming on stream. “It usually takes three to six months between making decisions and putting investments in place,” said Zhang Hanya, a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission.

According to the NBS, the total investment involved in new projects rose 88 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter. Zhang predicted that fixed asset investment in the second quarter may surge 30 per cent from a year earlier.