China's Fixed Asset Investment Rises 1.7% in Q1 2026

Beijing (ANTARA) - China’s fixed asset investment rose 1.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, reversing the 3.8% decline recorded for the whole of last year, according to official data released on Thursday.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated that the investment reached 10.27 trillion yuan (one yuan is approximately Rp2,513) or about 1.5 trillion US dollars (one US dollar is approximately Rp17,141) during this period.

Mao Shengyong, deputy head of the NBS, said that as 2026 marks the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China has intensified efforts to launch major projects and boost investment in new types of infrastructure, driving faster growth in infrastructure investment.

According to NBS data, infrastructure investment rose 8.9% (yoy) in Q1, up 8.3 percentage points from the full-year rate in 2025.

Manufacturing investment also recorded a steady recovery, driven by accelerated upgrades in traditional industries and stronger growth in emerging sectors, Mao said. In Q1, manufacturing investment increased 4.1% from a year earlier, or 3.5 percentage points faster than the growth for the whole of 2025.

Emerging industries such as the low-altitude economy, along with future-oriented industries like embodied intelligence and 6G, are developing at a faster pace and are gradually becoming new drivers of investment growth, Mao said.

Producer services are also continuing to specialise and move up the value chain, effectively unleashing new momentum for investment, Mao stated. Investment in high-tech services rose 12.3% in Q1.

Investment in intellectual property products rose 7.9% (yoy) in Q1, thanks to China’s strong push in recent years to pursue innovation-driven development and develop new quality productive forces, Mao revealed.

Looking ahead, Mao said fixed asset investment still has considerable room and potential for growth.

He stated that beyond the scale and rate of investment, greater attention should be paid to structure, returns, quality, and sustainability, with more effective investment directed towards improving people’s livelihoods, developing new quality productive forces, and promoting high-quality economic and social development.