Fixed-asset investment in urban areas maintained its rapid growth in the first five months of this year, rising 30.3 per cent year-on-year to 2.54 trillion yuan (US$317.5 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed yesterday.

That compares to a 29.6 per cent increase in the first four months.

The higher growth rate has once again caused concern among officials, who worry about an overheating economy.

In a State Council meeting on Wednesday, it was noted that excessive growth of fixed-asset investment and lending was a major problem.

The government aims to strictly control the scale of urban construction and the number of new projects in real estate and other sectors with excessive capacity.

In the latest meeting relating to bank loans on Tuesday, the central bank urged domestic lenders to rein in lending to sectors with over-investment and improve their loan structure.

Banks are also being asked to enhance risk control capacity and control medium- and long-term loans.

The central bank raised the benchmark lending rate by 0.27 of a percentage point in April.

But because the investment growth rate is up again, it is only normal for the authorities to think of more tightening measures, said Zhang Liqun, a senior researcher with the State Council Development Research Centre, a government think-tank.

"The intention is pretty obvious," he said. "The authorities will take action to control the number and scale of new investment projects."

He said this would be done through means such as a higher threshold for market entry, environmental protection standards and economic efficiency measures.

As usual, credit and land control measures will be used to curb investment, he said.

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