(Yicai Global) April 17 -- China's investment in real estate development was down 7.7 percent annually to some CNY2.2 trillion (USD330 billion) in the first quarter, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics today.

An Yicai Global survey of 24 chief economists at major Chinese financial institutions found they predicted, on average, that the first-quarter property investment contracted 9.94 percent.

This figure is a great improvement on that in the first two months, when realty investment was down 16.3 percent.

Editor: Ben Armour