Property prices jump in China

BEIJING, March 6 (UPI) -- Inflation of property prices leaped in Chinese cities in January, the government announced Thursday.

The average price for property jumped 11.3 percent over prices in January 2007, a government report said. In one city, Urumqi, the capital of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, property prices skyrocketed 25 percent.

The second highest increase was in the city of Nanning, where prices jumped 20.3 percent.

The government said efforts to slow the rate of inflation had begun to take effect. In 2007, China's central bank increased its commercial bank reserve ratio on 10 occasions. It has only had to do so once this year, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Real estate prices in Beijing rose 17.2 percent in January. In Shanghai, they rose 10.1 percent.

The Chinese economy expanded 11.4 percent in 2007, the government reported, pushed by a 24.8 percent rise in fixed asset investments.