Foreign direct investment in China falls in 2012

Foreign direct investment in China fell 3.7 percent in 2012 to $111.72 billion, according to the government. For the month of December FDI also declined, slipping 4.5 percent from the same month in 2011 to $11.7 billion, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday. Investment from the European Union declined 3.8 percent to $6.11 billion, the ministry said. But investment from the United States rose 4.5 percent to $3.12 billion, the ministry said, while investment from Japan increased 16.3 percent to $7.38 billion. "The growth momentum of investment from some developed countries including the United States and Japan was good," the ministry said in a statement. Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang also said in a statement that in 2012, Chinese directly invested $77.22 billion overseas, an increase of 28.6 percent from the year before.