BEIJING: Foreign direct investment in China fell again in October, the government said on Tuesday, as investors remained cautious amid global economic woes and China's own slowdown.
Foreign companies invested $8.3 billion in factories and other projects in China last month, down 0.24 percent from a year ago, Shen Danyang, Ministry of Commerce spokesman, said at a regular news conference.
The drop extended a broad downward trend stretching back to November of last year. Since then, FDI has declined every month except May, when it rose a marginal 0.05 percent.
For the first 10 months of the year, FDI fell 3.45 percent on year to $91.7 billion, Shen said.
The government has blamed the slump on the slowdown in global economic growth, the prolonged European debt crisis and rising costs and weak demand at home.
The world's second-largest economy itself has slowed for seven consecutive quarters as well, expanding 7.4 percent in the three months ended September 30, its worst performance since the first quarter of 2009.
Investment from debt-laden European Union countries decreased by five percent on year in the January-October period to $5.2 billion, according to the ministry's data.
Ten Asian countries and regions, including Hong Kong and Thailand, invested $78.0 billion in China in the period, down 4.7 percent from a year ago.
In contrast to dropping FDI, China's investment abroad surged sharply this year after slowing last year owing to a weak global economic recovery and financial turmoil in Europe and the United States.
Outbound direct investment in non-financial sectors in the first 10 months of the year totalled $58.2 billion, soaring 25.8 percent from the same period last year, Shen said.
"This is the inevitable result of the implementation of our strategy (for Chinese companies) to go abroad, the improvement of Chinese firms' competitiveness and changes in the international market," he said.
In 2011, the figure stood at $60.1 billion, up just 1.8 percent year on year, previous official data showed.
China has set goals to increase overseas direct investment at an average annual rate of 17 percent through 2015 to $150 billion by then, according to the government.
- AFP/de
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