FDI INCREASES BY 29.4 PER CENT, IN CHINA JANUARY 2015, WHICH IS THE HIGHEST IN 4 YEARS

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China grew at its strongest pace in nearly four years in January, surging 29.4 percent from a year earlier to $13.9 billion as investors largely shunned the troubled manufacturing sector and focused on the more resilient services industry.
But analysts cautioned about reading too much into economic indicators for January alone, given the strong seasonal distortions caused by the timing of the Lunar New Year holidays, which began on Jan. 31 last year but start on Feb. 19 this year.
In January FDI rose to 4.5 percent from December. Earlier data showed FDI in China rose just 1.7 percent in 2014, the slackest pace since 2012. The weak performance underscored a cooling economy which is spurring more Chinese firms to plough money into assets overseas in a trend that is soon set to overtake inbound investment.
Foreign direct investment is an important gauge of the health of the world economy and is also a good indicator of where capital is flowing within the country.
China overtook United States to become the top destination for FDI in 2014, largely due to falling inflows caused by a deal between U.S. firm Verizon Communications Inc and its British partner Vodafone, according to the United Nations economic think-tank UNCTAD.
In January, the top 10 investors, led by Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan, made up for 96.5 percent of China’s FDI.
In line with China’s manufacturing slowdown, the data showed investors were flocking to the services industry. Foreign direct investment in the services sector hit $9.2 billion in January, which is a increase by 45.1 percent from a year earlier and which accounts for 66 percent of total FDI.
China’s outbound direct investment (ODI) hit $10.2 billion in January, which is an increased by 40.6 percent from a year earlier. Last year, China drew a record of $119.6 billion worth of FDI, while ODI surged 14.1 percent to a new high of $102.9 billion.