(national Bureau of Statistics: commodity housing sales prices in first-tier cities rose year-on-year, year-on-year decline narrowed in second-and third-tier cities]. In March, among the 70 large and medium-sized cities, the sales prices of new commercial housing and second-hand housing rose in 18 and 8 cities respectively, an increase of 4 and 1 respectively over the previous month. In March, the price of newly built commercial housing in first-tier cities rose 1.7 per cent year-on-year, the same as the previous month, while the price of second-hand housing rose 1.1 per cent year-on-year, an increase of 0.1 percentage points over the previous month. The sales prices of new commercial housing and second-hand housing in second-tier cities fell 0.2 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively from the same period last year, both 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous month. The sales prices of new commercial housing and second-hand housing in third-tier cities fell 2.7% and 3.9% respectively from the same period last year, 0.6 and 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous month.