Foreign direct investment in China rose more than expected in January. That’s a sign that confidence in the world’s second-largest economy remains firm even as growth cools. China’s outbound investment also expanded.
China attracted 10.7 billion US dollars in foreign direct investment in January. The rise was a 16 percent increase from a year earlier and beat expectations of a 2.5 percent increase. The majority of the new investment, around 6.3 billion US dollars, went into China’s services industry. That number increased close to 60 percent from the same period last year, while investment in manufacturing fell more than 20 percent.
Investments from 10 Asian countries and regions rose 22 percent to $9.5 billion in January. Investment from the United States increased 35 percent to nearly 370 million dollars while funds from the European Union fell 41 percent to about $480 million. The investment comes even as China’s economy shows signs of slowing from the stellar growth rates of years past as the government looks to shift the emphasis to structural reforms.
The data also shows that more Chinese companies are expanding abroad. Outbound investment in January was 7.23 billion US dollars, up 47.2 percent from a year earlier.The rise in outbound FDI in January was led by a 500 percent jump in investment in Japan and 281 percent in Russia. Chinese firms have been quickening the pace of overseas purchases in recent years, with their footprint expanding from Asia to Africa and Europe.
Source: CCTV
