BEIJING -- China's fixed asset investment rose 21.2 percent year-on-year to 2.57 trillion yuan ($409.76 billion) in the first two months, the National Bureau of Statistics said Saturday.

The growth rate was down 0.3 percentage point from the same period last year, but up 0.6 percentage point from the pace for the full year of 2012, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

In the first two months, investment in the agricultural sector surged 37.4 percent to 33.6 billion yuan. Investment in the industrial sector grew 15.6 percent to 1.03 trillion yuan, while the service sector saw a 25-percent rise to 1.5 trillion yuan.

At 25.2 percent year-on-year, investment in the nation's central regions witnessed the fastest growth, followed by 23.3 percent in the west and 20.1 percent in the east.