China's FDI down 1.2% from Jan. to Oct.
中国外商直接投资减少

Foreign direct investment for the month of October showed an over 1 percent jump versus the same month last year. But if we look at the total FDI that came into China in the first ten months on aggregate that number actually declining compared to the first ten months of 2013.

Different story for the amount of money Chinese firms are investing abroad...outbound direct investment continues to surge.

China drew in 8.5 billion US dollars in non-financial foreign direct investment in September. That’s up 1.2 percent from the same time last year continuing the momentum from September.

But looking at the first ten months of 2014, FDI totalled about 95 billion US dollars. Down 1.2 percent year on year. Within those overall figures, foreign investment in the services sector maintained fast growth, totalling 53 billion US dollars and up around 6 percent from the first ten months last year. But investment in manufacturing continues to fall, down more than 15 percent from last year to 32 billion US dollars.

"Many Chinese manufacturing sectors are facing the problem of overcapacity. They are now under reforms and looking for new opportunities. Overall investment into the manufacturing continues to slow. Foreign companies need to in the services sector if they want to increase investment into china," says Shen Danyang, spokesman of Ministry of Commerce.

Outbound direct investment took a turn and dropped 12 percent in October, but for the first ten months, it totalled 82 billion US dollars, up close to 18 percent year one year, indicating high interest from Chinese companies in investing abroad and going global.

".China’s investment into the EU, Japan, the US and the ASEAN countries were up in the first ten months, investment into Australia and Russia dropped. Local Chinese companies increased their outbound investment by 33 percent compared with the same time last year," Shen says.

Some say that outbound investment is set to exceed FDI for the first time this year.In the first half of this year, there was a drop in outbound investment. Some say it was due to the anti-corruption campaign. But there was a surge in deals in the third quarter. Analysts say that China is poised to become a net exporter of capital as growth at home continues to slow.