BEIJING--Foreign investors' direct investment in China grew
10.5% year-over-year in the first five months of the year, the
Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.
This was a tad slower than the 11.1% increase posted during the
January-April period.
The country's service sector, however, continued to record fast
growth in foreign investment in the latest period, the ministry
said.
China attracted 331 billion yuan ($53.8 billion) of FDI in the
first five months of 2015, the commerce ministry said.
The service sector attracted $33.9 billion yuan of foreign
investment in the first five months, up 23.5% from a year earlier,
accounting for 63% of total FDI, the government agency said.
U.S. grain and meat company Cargill Inc., Germany's Deutsche
Lufthansa AG (LHA.XE) and Daimler AG's (DAI.XE) Mercedes-Benz,
among other multinational companies, continued to boost their
investment in China, the ministry said.
Investment from the European Union stood at $3.31 billion in the
first five months of the year, up 23.2% from a year earlier,
according to the ministry. FDI from the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations came in at $2.6 billion, up 3.6%.
Investment from the U.K., Hong Kong and Macau also grew rapidly
in the period, the commerce ministry said.
--Liyan Qi