China’s foreign direct investment inflow up 3.4% in April

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland went up 3.4 % year on year to 8.7 billion U.S. dollars in April, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Friday.This came after a decline in March, when FDI edged down 1.47 % year on year, the first drop in over a year.In the first four months, China drew 40.3 billion U.S. dollars in FDI, an increase of 5.0 % from a year earlier, the MOC said.About 55.8 % of the FDI went into the service sector, and that to the manufacturing sector dropped 11.4 % to 14.5 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 35.9 % of the total. In the January-April period, FDI from the Republic of Korea into the Chinese mainland saw the most rise, up 138.5 % year on year. But FDI from Japan decreased 46.8 % year on year and FDI from the United States went down 11.4 % year on year.China’s outbound direct investment by non-financial firms dropped 12.9 % to 25.69 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months, the ministry said.