Foreign investment in China up 6.2%

Foreign investment in China rose 6.2 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2013, the government said on Thursday. However, while the commerce ministry said Chinese investment overseas had increased sharply over the first nine months of the year, the amount of cash going to Japan had almost halved. Beijing said Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which excludes financial sectors, reached $88.6 billion for January-September. For September alone FDI climbed 4.9 percent to $8.84 billion, well up from the 0.62 percent rise seen in August. But the figure is a sharp slowdown from 24.13 percent seen in July and 20.12 percent in June. The amount of money coming from the European Union rose 23 percent year-on-year to $5.94 billion, while from the United States it increased 21.3 percent to $2.88 billion. The vast majority, however, comes from from a group of 10 Asian countries and regions including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and Singapore. FDI from the region jumped 7.5 percent to $76.3 billion in January-September. "Investment from the 10 Asian countries and regions, the EU and the US maintained rather fast growth," the commerce ministry said in the statement. Separately, investment from China rose 17.4 percent year-on-year to $61.64 billion during the nine months, the ministry said. However, the amount of cash going to Japan slumped 45.5 percent. The plunge comes as the two countries are embroiled in a sovereignty dispute over islands they both claim in the East China Sea -- known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. The long-simmering tensions boiled over in September last year, when Tokyo nationalised the islands, sparking a bitter diplomatic stand-off. Despite the row, Japanese investment in China during the first nine months rose 5.62 percent to $5.94 billion.