A greater number of China's big cities saw new home prices drop last month, underscoring continued sluggishness in the country's real-estate market.



The National Bureau of Statistics said Monday that the index for new home prices fell in 45 of 70 major cities in February from a month earlier. That is three cities more than previously, and accounts for over 64 percent of all major cities in the country.



Prices rose in just 18 cities, and remained flat in seven.



Among the biggest cities, Guangzhou saw a decline of 0.2 percent, while Shenzhen logged an increase of 0.4 percent. Prices rose 0.2 percent in Shanghai and 0.1 percent in Beijing.



The cost of new homes fell 0.3 percent on average in smaller cities. The decline extended by 0.1 percentage point from January.



The government has pledged to shore up the economy through aggressive fiscal spending and further monetary easing. But it remains to be seen whether the authorities can come up effective measures to turn around the slumping real-estate market.