BEIJING: China’s real estate investment in the first half eased to its slowest since 2009, pointing to persistent weakness, even as sales improved on government measures to support the sector. Property investment, a main driver of the economy, grew 4.6 per cent in the first half of 2015 from a year earlier, marking the slowest rate since the March quarter of 2009, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on July 15. A prolonged slowdown in the property market has weighed on the broader economy, which grew seven per cent in the second quarter of this year, according to other data released on July 15. Economists believe that weak property investment, as an important part of the overall investment, will continue to pose one of the main risks to China’s economy until its high inventories of unsold homes are cleared.