Foreign direct investment in China leapt 32 percent year-on-year last month for the fourth straight monthly increase, the commerce ministry said yesterday.
China attracted US$7.023 billion in foreign investment last month, ministry spokesman Yao Jian (姚堅) told reporters.
The increase compared with a 5.7 percent rise in October, an 18.9 percent jump in September and a 7 percent rise in August, which ended 10 straight months of declines.
Foreign direct investment in the first 11 months of the year fell 9.9 percent year-on-year to US$77.9 billion.
Yao said growth in foreign direct investment was expected to rebound at a stable pace “in the coming several months” — roughly at a margin of US$7 billion to US$8 billion per month.
China is still attractive to foreign firms because it is an increasingly important market for multinational companies, particularly as consumption in the West remains weak following the global slump, he said.
According to a poll carried out by the American Chamber of Commerce in China earlier this year, 62 percent of firms surveyed said their top goal in China was to produce or source goods or services for the local market.
Last year, only 51 percent of US companies picked that as their top objective.
In the first 11 months of this year, investment from the US and Europe fell “very sharply” — each by 38 percent year-on-year — while that from Asian countries including Japan and Singapore jumped by nearly 60 percent, Yao said.
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