China surpasses US when it comes to foreign direct investment
This picture taken on September 26, 2012 shows workers on a scaffold at a construction site in Hefei, in central China’s Anhui province. Beijing recently approved a massive infrastructure package as the government seeks to boost the flagging economy.
China is trumpeting news that for the first time since 2003, it received more foreign direct investment (FDI) than the United States.
China received $59 billion through the first half of 2012, although it did experience a 3 percent decline from the same period last year, China Daily reported.
The US was second with $57.4 billion FDI, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development figures released this week.
However, that equates to nearly 40 percent less than the same period for the US in 2011.
“China’s biggest attraction to global investment is now its huge market, contrasting the long-time low cost, which is now ranked third or fourth,” Zhang Xiaoji, director of a Chinese economic think tank, told China Daily.
“The economy is anyway growing in China, outperforming the US and the European Union, which are suffering medium- or long-term troubles.”
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The US wasn’t the only declining nation, Forbes reported.
Global FDI declined 8 percent, although UNCTAD’s tenth Global Investment Trend Monitor predicts it will level off this year at about $1.6 trillion, Forbes said.
It also predicts a better end to 2012 for the US.
“Early indications show that FDI flows to the United States might be stronger in the second half of 2012,” the report said.
“The value of cross-border (mergers and acquisitions) in the third quarter of 2012 were double those of the first half of the year, while some further acquisitions are already taking place or announced in the fourth quarter.”
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