China’s June FDI jumps 9.7 pct to $15.2b, fastest since Aug ’15

Natural disasters had large impact on economy: Premier Li

BEIJING, July 12, (RTRS): China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) jumped 9.7 percent in June from a year earlier, official data showed on Tuesday, recovering from a 1 percent drop in May and hitting a 10-month high.

The total of FDI received by China last month was 98.2 billion yuan, or $15.2 billion, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its website.

In the first half of 2016, FDI rose 5.1 percent from the same period a year earlier to 441.76 billion yuan, or $69.42 billion, according to the statement.

The ministry has started releasing yuan-denominated FDI since early 2015, along with equivalent dollar figures based on its own conversion.

Foreign investment in the services sector rose 8 percent in January-June to 310.8 billion yuan, or $48.9 billion, accounting for 70.4 percent of all FDI, said the ministry, with investment in high-tech services soaring 99.7 percent from a year earlier.

Investment in the manufacturing sector fell 2.8 percent in January-June from a year earlier to 124.9 billion yuan, or $19.5 billion, making up for 28.3 pct of total FDI, the ministry said.

The ministry did not give numbers for FDI by specific countries and did not rank the biggest suppliers, though it said the United States, Britain and Germany were among the top 10 sources.

FDI from the United States soared 136 percent in January-June from a year earlier, investment from Britain rose 105.3 percent and that from Germany by 90.3 percent, the ministry said.

Recent natural disasters in China have had a relatively large impact on the economy, Premier Li Keqiang said, according to state radio on Tuesday.

In the last few weeks, China has been hit by super typhoon Nepartak and severe flooding, which killed more than 100 people and damaged infrastructure, livestock and agriculture.

Li made the comments made during a meeting with high-level officials and business leaders on Monday.

China will try to maintain economic growth within a reasonable range and the economy is basically stable, he said, but downward pressure remains.

Meanwhile, Shanghai’s online finance association showed its member executives a taste of life behind bars on Tuesday as part of an effort to nip crime in the bud in a sector that has been dogged by scandal.

About 50 company representatives heard tales of regret told by jailed financial criminals on a one-day tour of Shanghai Qingpu prison, as part of a programme to “strike illegal fundraising fraud”, the association said on its website.

They were escorted by a deputy secretary-general of the city’s online finance association and prison guards.

“After seeing former industry peers locked-up in jail for breaking their ethical bottom line, the participants all said they have learned a hard lesson,” the association said in the posting.

Fraud has proliferated in China’s loosely regulated online finance industry, led by the discovery in February of a $7.6 billion Ponzi scheme at peer-to-peer lender Ezubao, which cheated more than 900,000 investors, state media reported.

The government has responded aggressively with the State Council approving a one-year plan to clean up online finance, setting stricter rules for peer-to-peer platforms.

Meanwhile, China stocks edged up on Tuesday after the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 touched a new high overnight, but lagged gains in other Asian markets as domestic investors awaited growth data and details on planned reforms.

China’s main indexes moved in and out of positive territory all morning after a strong open.

The CSI300 index, helped by finance and manufacturing shares, rose 0.1 percent, to 3,207.93 points at the end of the morning, while the Shanghai Composite Index was unchanged at 2,994.88 points.

China CSI300 stock index futures for July rose 0.2 percent, to 3,202.8, or 5.13 points below the current value of the underlying index.

Analysts said the Chinese market was mostly in a holding pattern, waiting for more information on proposed reforms and second quarter GDP growth data on Friday.

“There hasn’t been much a constant trend for the past few sessions,” said Zhang Gang, analyst at Central Securities in Shanghai.