Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China fell again last month, the government said yesterday, amid stubborn weakness in both the global and Chinese economies.
Investment from overseas declined by 1.4 percent from a year earlier to US$8.3 billion last month, the commerce ministry said in a statement.
The monthly fall continued a downward trend that goes back to November, with the exception of May, when FDI eked out a marginal gain of 0.05 percent.
The government has blamed the slump on the slowdown in global economic growth, the prolonged European debt crisis and rising costs and weak demand within China.
For the first eight months of the year, overseas companies invested US$75 billion in factories and other projects in China, down 3.4 percent from the same period a year ago, the statement said.
Investment by the 27 member countries of the EU slumped by 4.1 percent on year in the January-August period, while that from the US dropped by 2.9 percent, it said.
Fund flows from 10 Asian countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea also slumped by 5 percent year-on-year in the period, it said.
In related news, Chinese developers’ credit outlook improved as a recovery in home prices eased liquidity pressures and a slowing economy limited the government’s incentive to further tighten policy, Standard & Poor’s said.
The credit rating company may “see some positive rating actions” in the next six months as defaults by so-called distressed developers are less likely after asset sales, S&P said in a report on Tuesday.
Prices for newly constructed homes in China rose in fewer cities last month than the previous month, reducing the likelihood that policy makers would take further steps to constrain property prices as growth in the world’s second-biggest economy cools.
Thirty-five of 70 cities covered by the National Bureau of Statistics had price gains last month from the previous month, compared with 49 in July, according to a release in Beijing on Tuesday.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the