Turning to China's housing sector. New data from the State Statistics Bureau shows that the property market remained stable across China in March. The month also marked the second anniversary of Beijing's restrictive policy on house purchases aimed at cooling the capital city's over-inflated housing market. Our Song Yaotian has more.

The State Statistics Bureau said that the price of new houses in China's first-tier cities increased only 4.2 percent year on year in March. That was while the prices of pre-owned houses in those locations saw just a 0.5 percent increase year on year.

The Maitian real estate agency in central Beijing said that it saw just slight changes in its transaction volume in March. March is the month realtors normally expect promising seasonal growth in sales.

FAN JINPING MAITIAN REAL ESTATE AGENCY "We arrange six blocks in the Guomao area. Before the Spring Festival, we might sell three to four apartments a month. But after the Spring Festival, in March, we sold four to five apartments. So not a big jump."

Fan said that 95 percent of the agency's customers are upgrading from smaller units. She said that the remainder are first-time-buyers, many being youngsters securing a small house when they have some money in hand. Fan said that her agency rarely sees people buying houses as investments. But that was not the case two years ago. The Beijing housing market was over inflated for years, before it peaked at the beginning of 2017. From September 2016 to March 2017, prices went up 30 percent. There was a home buying frenzy everywhere. To put a brake on the bubble, Beijing imposed strict measures on housing purchases in March 2017. One of the primary measures raised down payments from 30 to 60 percent. The policy has been effective. 

SONG YAOTIAN BEIJING "Two years after the government's March 17th policy to curb the overheated housing market, the average price of a home in Beijing dropped 11 percent. Now over ninety percent of buyers purchase a house to live, instead of for investment."

Experts say that recent hukou reforms might create more demand in some NEW first-tier cities.

HU JINGHUI, CHAIRMAN CHINA ALLIANCE OF REAL ESTATE AGENCIES "Different city, different situation. Such like some new first-tier cities, such as Wuhan, Hangzhou, and Nanjing. Because such cities have better industry arrangements, better jobs, better income. And their public service is also good. Maybe some people will move there. And bring more demand for houses. That will make the transaction volume become bigger."

But Hu says that those cities will also increase their supply for houses. So, the policy will probably not create a surge in home prices.

SONG YAOTIAN, CGTN.