BEIJING -- New home prices continued to rise in most Chinese cities in August, according to official data released on Wednesday.

Of a statistical pool of 70 major Chinese cities, 66 saw month-on-month new home price rises, with the highest growth rate at 1.7 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics announced.

In July, 62 cities recorded month-on-month increase in new home prices, with the highest rate at 2.2 percent.