Chinese house price growth steady in May

Chinese house price growth was steady in May following the sharp slowdown seen over the back half of 2017.

On average, new home prices in the country's 70 largest cities advanced at a year-on-year pace of 4.7%, the same as in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Versus the previous month however, the rate of home prices gained 0.8%, versus a rise of 0.6% in April.

Significantly, house prices increased in 61 of the 70 cities included in the survey, up from 58 during the previous month.

Last month's gains came about despite efforts by local authorities to dampen house price inflation without provoking an undue fallout on the rest of the economy.