What’s new: China attracted a record high $334 billion in net foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021, a 32% surge from the previous year, government data showed.
Net FDI inflows are a major component of overall net overseas investment into China, which rose 13% to $661.6 billion in 2021, according to a Friday report from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
Another major component of net inbound investment — net portfolio investment (证券投资) — stood at $176.9 billion. The figure’s 28% drop from 2020 was attributed to a strong-base effect as it was still significantly higher than that of 2019, according to the report.
Last year, overseas investors raked in $417.4 billion in earnings from their total investments in China, representing a 6% rate of return, higher than 5.5% in 2020 and 4.7% in 2019.
The background: “Good prospects for China’s economic development, the effectiveness of pandemic controls, the country’s continuous opening-up and improvement of the business environment have attracted long-term overseas capital,” SAFE said in the report.
Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
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