Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China plunged 17.0 percent from a year earlier to USD to 7.8 billion in July, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Monday. It followed a 0.2 percent expansion in June, according to figures released by the ministry.
For the first seven months of the year, the world's second-biggest economy's FDI inflow declined 0.4 percent on the year to USD 71.1 billion, with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, the US, Germany, France and the Netherlands listed as the top investors. FDI data excludes financial sectors. FDI from Britain and South Korea jumped 61.2 percent and 34.6 percent in the January-July period on the year respectively, while that from the European Union and Japan slid 17.5 percent and 45.4 percent, respectively, the ministry said. "With China speeding up economic restructuring, it's normal for us to have some fluctuations in FDI figures. But such fluctuations are not evidence for changing trends," ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Shen rejected speculation the decline in FDI was related with China's ongoing anti-monopoly investigations into foreign-funded companies. "Groundless speculation is completely unnecessary," Shen said at a press conference in Beijing.
Monday's data also showed that foreign investors set up 13,249 new companies in the first seven months of 2014, up 1.6 percent year on year.