China's urban fixed-asset investment in the first five months rose 32.9 percent year on year to 5.352 trillion yuan (787 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics announced Thursday.

The growth rate was 2.4 percentage points higher than that of the first four months.

The growth rate in the primary sector (farming, fishing, forestry and the like) remained highest, up by 79.7 percent to 91.5 billion yuan in the first five months. The secondary sector saw investment rise by 29.1 percent to 2.3 trillion yuan and the tertiary sector by 34.9 percent to 2.956 trillion yuan.

Investment in real estate rose 6.8 percent to 1.016 trillion yuan. The growth rate was 1.9 percentage points higher than the first quarter.

From January to May, 123,878 new projects were begun, 39,510 more than a year earlier, with total investment surging 95.9 percent to 5.33 trillion yuan.

Zhang Liqun, a research fellow with the Macroeconomic Department of the Development and Research Center of the State Council, said the rapid growth in the number of new projects would provide continued driving force for economic growth.

He attributed the surge in fixed-asset investment to the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package unveiled last November, and a growth in bank credit.

Central government project investment rose 28 percent to 473.4 billion yuan from January to May, with investment by local governments up 33.4 percent to 4.87 trillion yuan.

The General Administration Customs also announced Thursday that the country's exports and imports shrank for the seventh month in row in May. Exports fell 26.4 percent in May from the same period a year ago to 88.758 billion U.S. dollars. Imports were down 25.2 percent to 75.36 billion U.S. dollars.

The trade surplus was 13.39 billion U.S. dollars.

Exports in the five months to May totaled 426.14 billion U.S. dollars, down 21.8 percent, and imports were down 28 percent to 337.34 billion U.S. dollars over the same period.