China's fixed assets investment in urban regions totaled 5.67 trillion yuan in the first seven months this year, up 26.6 percent year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.  

The growth figure is 3.9 percentage points lower than for the January-July period of last year.

Investment in real estate sector reached 1.21 trillion yuan, up 28.9 percent, while the investment by state owned enterprises came to 2,431.7 billion yuan, up 16.5 percent.

Among the industries, investment in the primary industry enjoyed a 46.2-percent growth to 66.5 billion yuan and that of the secondary industry rose by 28.9 percent to 2.55 trillion yuan. The tertiary industry witnessed an increase of 24.5 percent to 3.05 trillion yuan.

The non-metallic minerals sector saw a 48.8-percent increase year on year; investment in coal mining grew 17.2 percent; and energy was up 12.6 percent.

Chinese retail sales in July rose 16.4 percent year-on-year to reach 699.8 billion yuan, according to the bureau.

Another major economic barometer - consumer price index (CPI)- rose by a 33-month-high 5.6 percent in July on food price hikes compared with the same period of last year, said the bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2007)