BEIJING—China attracted $14.02 billion of foreign direct investment in the first two months of this year, up 4.9% from the year-earlier period, official data showed Monday, reflecting the broader economic recovery world-wide.
Foreign investment into China fell early last year as the financial crisis deterred foreign companies from investing in developing economies, but has been recovering since August. Despite concerns among foreign businesses of China's investment climate becoming less hospitable, Beijing says it still welcomes foreign investors. Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday he would spend more time reaching out to foreign businesses.
The government has also been eager to encourage Chinese companies to expand abroad to secure raw materials such as oil and natural gas, vital to the economy's growth, as well as picking up advanced technologies and gaining access to overseas markets.
In a sign this push is working, outward investments by nonfinancial sectors totaled $4.66 billion during the January-February period, more than the total during the first quarter of last year, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Web site.
It didn't provide comparative data for the January-February period last year.
Based on a Dow Jones Newswires calculation, Chinese companies invested $2.30 billion abroad last month, nearly as much as $2.36 billion in January.
China is targeting outward investment in nonfinancial sectors of $46 billion this year, an increase of 6.2%, after such investment rose 6.5% to $43.3 billion last year.
Foreign investment in February, however, fell from January and was the lowest since July last year, likely because the weeklong Lunar New Year holidays fell in February this year but in January last year. February investment was 1.1% higher than in the year-earlier period.
