Local media, including state-run news agency Xinhua, reported on the 18th that foreign direct investment (FDI) in China this year fell 9.4% from last year.
According to data released by China’s Ministry of Commerce the previous day, FDI to China from January to October this year was 987.01 billion yuan, down 9.4% year-on-year.
China only publishes cumulative FDI statistics from January to the previous month, but does not disclose monthly figures.
In addition, since August, only yuan-denominated FDI has been announced, and dollar-denominated statistics have not been disclosed.
Earlier, market researcher Wind said in its own analysis that FDI into China in September was only 72.8 billion yuan, a 34% drop from the same month last year.
This is the largest decrease since 2014 on a monthly basis.
With China’s economy unable to get out of the recession and developers such as Evergrande and Viguyuyuan facing a series of defaults, the decline in FDI to China this year has increased toward the second half of the year.
In the first half of this year, the yuan fell 2.7% year-on-year, down 4% in January-July, and the decline continued to grow to 5.1% in January-August.
The decline in FDI from January to July, converted into dollars, expanded further to 9.8%.
China has not released dollar-denominated FDI statistics since August because yuan-denominated FDI, which is weak against the dollar, may appear to have declined less than dollar-denominated statistics.
Regarding the decline in FDI, the Ministry of Commerce stressed that China is still an attractive investment destination, saying it is an optical illusion caused by a surge from last year’s average year along with a slowdown in global economic recovery.
It also highlighted that 41,947 new foreign companies were newly established in China between January and October, up 32.1% from the same period last year.
