Chinese fixed asset investment rose 3.4 percent year-to-date in September, unchanged from the growth recorded in August, which was the lowest growth rate of the year. Property investment was again weak, falling 10.1 percent year-to-date, but growth was solid in other sectors, with manufacturing investment up 9.2 percent year-to-date. In month-over-month terms, fixed asset investment increased 0.65 percent after advancing 0.16 percent previously.

Today's data follow a series of policy measures announced by Chinese officials in recent weeks in response to ongoing weakness in the property sector and sluggish growth in consumer spending and manufacturing output. Officials lowered the seven-day reverse repo rate, cut banks' reserve requirements, and announced government spending planned for next year would be brought forward.

In their statement accompanying today's data, officials characterised the data as showing the economy is"generally stable with steady progress" but noted"the complicated and severe external environment" and"new problems of domestic economic development". Officials, however, provided little guidance about whether additional changes to policy settings will be considered in the near-term.

Data published today were stronger than consensus expectations. The China's RPI and RPI-P both rose from minus 64 to plus 7, indicating that recent Chinese data in sum are now coming in just above consensus forecasts.

Forecasters see fixed asset investment up a modest 3.3 percent on the year as China's economy remains sluggish and capex constrained.

Investment in fixed assets refers to the investment in construction and purchase of fixed assets by private and state-controlled domestic enterprises and households (excluding rural households) involving a total planned investment of CNY5 million yuan or more. Separate data for private investment and state-controlled investment are published as well as more detailed data on an industry basis.

Investment in fixed assets is an important part of gross domestic product and also provides the additional productive capacity to an economy that is required to drive future growth. Strong growth in this category of spending indicates that enterprises are confident about future prospects and is generally associated with rising employment and incomes.

Investment in fixed assets therefore provides information about near-term and future economic growth. Investors need to closely track the economic growth because it usually dictates how investments will perform. Investors in the stock market like to see healthy economic growth because robust business activity translates to higher corporate profits. Bond investors are more highly sensitive to inflation and robust economic activity could potentially pave the road to inflation. By tracking economic data such as GDP, investors will know what the economic backdrop is for these markets and their portfolios.