Advertisement

China industrial investment slowing amid tepid demand: deputy minister

A man walks over a bridge as smoke rises from chimneys of a thermal power plant in Shanghai February 23, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in investment in China's industry is slowing amid tepid external demand, the deputy industry minister said on Thursday. It will require hard work to meet China's industrial growth targets for 2016, Feng Fei said, according to a statement on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's website. China will accelerate reductions in capacity in some sectors in the second half this year, using market-based measures, he added. Weighed down by sluggish demand at home and abroad, industrial overcapacity and faltering investment, China's economic growth slowed to 6.9 percent in 2015, the coolest in a quarter of a century. Beijing is aiming for economic growth of between 6.5-7 percent in 2016. (Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Kim Coghill)