China Dec property price rise slowest in a year

BEIJING: China's annual property price rise in December marked its slowest pace in a year, but the government may intensify cooling measure to further slow the upward march of home prices.

Property prices grew 6.4% in December from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, Jan 17, the slowest since November 2009 when it hit 5.7%.

In month-on-month terms, property prices were still up 0.3% in December, maintaining a positive trend since September despite intensified government measures to rein in the red-hot market.

"Sales performance is still good recently, and developers will be very selective in cutting prices," said Wang Xiao, a property analyst with CCB International in Beijing. — Reuters