China's foreign direct investment inflows rose 5.8 percent in the first 10 months of 2013 from a year ago, extending gains since March and underlining a reviving appetite from global investors as the world's second-largest economy gained traction. The Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday that China drew $97 billion in foreign direct investment between January and October, with October's inflow up 1.2 percent on year earlier at $8.4 billion.
FDI from the top 10 Asian economies, including Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, rose 7.2 percent to $83.6 billion for the ten months. "We can see that foreign investment from Asian countries, the European Union and the US all kept relatively fast growth in the first 10 months," Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told a regular monthly briefing.
Investment from the European Union rose 22.3 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months, while inflows from the United States rose 12.4 percent. FDI inflows in China have maintained steady growth every year since the country joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Inflows reached a record high of $116 billion in 2011 before dipping slightly to $111.7 billion in 2012. The ministry has said the annual FDI amount in 2013 would remain at a similar level to that in 2012.