China August FDI rises 22% year-on-year

The Waigaoqiao Bonded area of the pilot Shanghai free trade zone [Xinhua]

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, a gauge of external confidence, surged 22 per cent year on year to 54.2 billion yuan ($8.71 billion) in August, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

The FDI news follows a series of underwhelming data releases, highlighting growth in industrial production, fixed-asset investment and retail sales all slowed in August.

Foreign investment projects take time to conceive and implement, making FDI a lagging indicator of general confidence, but they have remained strong in recent months nevertheless.

Last year, China drew a record $119.6 billion of FDI, while outbound investment rose 14.1 per cent to a new high of $102.9 billion.

Meanwhile, China’s consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, climbed to 2 per cent in August, the highest level seen in 2015, official data showed on Thursday.

The figure was up from market forecast rises of 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent in July.

Owing to rising food inflation, including vegetables and pork, consumer prices in August rose 0.5 per cent, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The government aims to keep consumer inflation at around 3 per cent for 2015.

 

TBP and Agencies