Despite the shift of the global market away from foreign investment, China still posted an overseas capital increase in 2017. Many market analysts are seeing this as a sign of the county's robust economy.
Based on latest data, China posted a total overseas capital of $136.3 billion in 2017. This is an increase of 2 percent when based on a year-to-year basis. This data was consolidated by the Report on Foreign Investment in China and was released on Sunday during the China International Fair for Investment and Trade.
Based on the report, of the $1366.1 billion worth of overseas capita, China was able to spend about $131 billion of this fund towards non-financial sectors. This is a record high for the country.
China's positive growth in terms of foreign investment continues to this day. Market statistics reveal that within the first seven months of this year, more than 35,000 foreign-invested companies have established their operations in China. This number represents a massive growth of 99.1 percent when based on a year-to-year basis. This data was released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
This is a highly positive development for the Chinese economy. In 2017, global overseas investment fell due to rising protectionism. China was able to withstand this storm and even manage to come out with positive results are the year went on.
In 2017, global foreign direct investment fell by 23 percent. This is based on the data released by the World Investment Report 2018 which was published by the United Nations in June.
Foreign Investment Research Center at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences director Li Xiaogang said that despite the global decline in terms of overseas companies' investment, China continues to remain active and still "a good phenomenon."
Mr. Li added that this positive growth can be attributed mainly on China's massive consumer market. China, despite being relegated to the second spot in terms of global economy, still has a massive untapped consumer market. It is this highly lucrative market that many foreign companies are trying to integrate their products into.
Evidence to China's growing effort to entice more foreign investments is the country's recent negotiations with several U.S. companies. Among these companies that were able to hold a meeting with top Chinese officials are oil giant ExxonMobil and tech giant Tesla. The two companies are currently in talks with the Chinese government as part of an effort to establish manufacturing plants in the country.
