China's fixed-asset investment up 5.1pc in 2022

BEIJING: China's fixed-asset investment saw a steady expansion in 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Tuesday.

Last year, the fixed-asset investment rose 5.1 percent year on year to over 57.21 trillion yuan (about 8.51 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the NBS.

In December alone, the fixed-asset investment increased 0.49 percent month on month.

Investment in infrastructure and manufacturing climbed 9.4 percent and 9.1 percent from a year earlier in 2022, respectively. Investment in property development fell 10 percent year on year.

The number of irregular border crossings into the European Union increased by 64 per cent last year compared to 2021 to reach the highest level since 2016, Frontex said on Friday.

The EU's border agency said around 330,000 entries were detected -- 45 per cent of them through the Western Balkans. "This was the second year in a row with a steep rise in the number of irregular entries," Frontex said, adding that Afghans, Syrians and Tunisians accounted for 47 per cent of the irregular crossings last year.

"The number of Syrians roughly doubled to 94,000", Frontex added. The Central Mediterranean route accounted for the second-highest number of crossings, rising by more than half to over 100,000.

The agency said women accounted for fewer than one in 10 of the crossings, while the share of reported minors fell to around nine per cent of all irregular entries.

Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) rose by 4.8 percent year on year in November 2022, reinforced by expansion in mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors, official data showed Wednesday.