Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China rose to US Dollars 68.41 billion in first half of the year registering an increase of 8.3 per cent, despite slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.
In the first half of the year, FDI, which excludes investment in the financial sector, stood at US Dollars 68.41 billion up 8.3 per cent from the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) here said today.
FDI in China rose 0.7 per cent year-on-year in June to US Dollars 14.58 billion slowing down sharply from 7.8 per cent increase in May.
Investment in the country’s burgeoning service industry continued robust growth, accounting for 63.5 per cent of total investment flows during the January-June period.
FDI in the manufacturing sector dropped 8.4 per cent to US Dollars 20.86 billion accounting for 30.5 per cent of the total.
MOC spokesman Shen Danyang attributed the fast investment growth in services to China’s massive market opportunities, government support to the industry, as well as increased opening-up in the sector.
Investments from Macao and France saw fast growth, up 56.2 per cent and 46.9 per cent respectively.
In contrast, investment from Japan plunged 16.3 per cent, and that from the US fell 37.6 per cent.
Foreign mergers and acquisitions in China increased sharply, with their share of total FDI surging from 4.8 per cent last year to 19.3 per cent.
Today’s data also showed China’s outbound direct investment by non-financial firms jumped 29.2 per cent to US Dollars 56 billion in the first half of the year.
The FDI data came as growth in the world’s second largest economy showed signs of bottoming out on the back of a slew of government support policies.
Growth in the second quarter came in at 7 per cent, its weakest growth since the global financial crisis in 2009, though unchanged from the first quarter and in line with the government target of around 7 per cent.
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