Provinces' investment outpaces average

The investment of most provinces in the first half of the year outpaced the national average of 20.1 percent, but general momentum slowed down compared with the same period last year.

All of the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the mainland have released their investment data calculated by local statistics bureaus. Twenty-three have beaten the national average, with the highest growth rate of 38.9 percent seen in the Tibet autonomous region.

The combined fixed-asset investment, a key pillar of China's local economy, was 909.9 billion yuan ($148.6 billion) more than the national total released by National Bureau of Statistics, or equivalent of Guangdong province's fixed-asset investment in the first half of the year.

However, compared with the first half of last year, the growth has generally slowed. In southwest Guizhou province, investment growth fell to 29.4 percent from a sizzling 60 percent a year ago, while in central Anhui province, growth eased to 21.6 percent from 22.8 percent a year earlier.

This is in line with the national trend. China's fixed-asset investment growth in the first half eased to 20.1 percent to hit 18.13 trillion yuan, down from 20.4 percent a year earlier.

"The investment-led rebound has not happened. This is due to a number of reasons, including weakness in global demand and tight restrictions on the property market. Investment in public utilities will partially offset the slowdown, but investment overall is expected to contribute less to growth," said Fred Gibson, an associate economist with Moody's Analytics.