BEIJING -- The Chinese government is capable of reining in rising fixed assets investment to maintain healthy economic development, said Li Xiaochao, spokesman with the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

The first half has seen a slowdown in the growth of fixed assets investment from 29.8 percent in the same period last year to 25.9 percent.

The People's Bank of China has raised the benchmark interest rates twice and the reserve ratios five times in the first half. Export tax rebates have been scrapped or reduced while natural resources were taxed more to discourage enterprises that consume high energy and resources.

Zuo Xiaolei, an analyst with Galaxy Securities, said these measures had compelled some enterprises to reduce their investment scale.

Zhang Hanya, Director of the Research Institute of Investment with the National Development and Reform Commission said the country's economy was running well in general and that the government was not under much pressure to take tougher moves to rein in investment.

Rebuffing concerns that China's economy was becoming overheated, Li Xiaochao said contemporary China had changed totally. "After nearly 30 years of economic reforms and opening up, China can use both domestic and overseas markets to absorb its production capacity to boost its economic growth," he said.