Foreign investment in China up 5.77% in first 10 months

Foreign investment into China rose 5.77 percent on year in the first 10 months of 2013, the government said on Tuesday. Foreign direct investment (FDI), which excludes financial sectors, totalled $97.0 billion for January-October, the Ministry of Commerce announced. For October alone FDI increased 1.24 percent to $8.42 billion, the ministry said. Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said in a statement that in the first 10 months, "investment in China from the 10 Asian countries and regions, the EU and the US maintained rather fast growth". Investment from the European Union jumped 22.3 percent year-on-year to $6.40 billion during the January-October period, while that from the United States increased 12.4 percent to $3.04 billion. By far, most investment into China comes from a group of 10 Asian countries and regions including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and Singapore. FDI from that region rose 7.18 percent to $83.6 billion in the year to October. China's overseas investment increased 20.0 percent year-on-year to $69.5 billion during the same period, the ministry said.