Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China fell 6.7 percent year-on-year to US$8.6 billion last month, the Chinese government said yesterday, denying that a row with Vietnam was behind a slump in investment from southeast Asia.
For the first five months of the year, FDI — which excludes investment in financial sectors — was up 1.6 percent at US$48.91 billion, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
In April, FDI was US$8.7 billion.
“Investment from major countries and regions into China generally maintained a stable growth momentum,” the ministry said.
Over the period from January to last month, investment from the EU dropped 22.1 percent to US$2.58 billion, with that from ASEAN countries falling 22.3 percent to US$2.54 billion.
Funding from Japan — China’s fifth-biggest investor — plunged 42.2 percent, the ministry said, without giving an amount.
China has multiple territorial disputes with its neighbors, and tensions with Vietnam are at a peak after Beijing deployed an oil rig in disputed waters, but ministry spokesman Shen Danyang (沈丹陽) denied the row was responsible for the fall in ASEAN investment.
The statistics were based on specific projects and the comparison base also mattered, he told reporters.
“Generally China’s cooperation with ASEAN has not been affected by the current situation,” he said.
Beijing is also embroiled in a long-running dispute with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea.
“The continued strains in China-Japan political relations will make the environment for bilateral economic cooperation deteriorate and may cause economic and trade relations to regress and affect companies’ will to cooperate,” Shen said.
“The responsibility is not China’s,” he added.
China’s top investors in the five-month period were Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan, the ministry said.
Investment from South Korea and Britain jumped 87.9 percent and 62.2 percent respectively, while that from the US dropped 9.3 percent, the ministry said, without providing values.
The commerce ministry also announced that China’s overseas investment in non-financial sectors in the first five months fell 10.2 percent year-on-year to US$30.81 billion.
Investment to the US rose 144 percent year-on-year to US$2.03 billion, and that to the ASEAN countries increased 4.2 percent to US$1.9 billion, it said.
China’s investments into Hong Kong, the EU and Australia fell 32.6 percent, 9.2 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, it said.
However, investment into Russia and Japan leapt by 105.7 percent and 141.9 percent “due to low comparison bases last year,” it said.
China’s total outstanding overseas investment in non-financial sectors as of the end of last month stood at US$556.5 billion, the ministry said.
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