Over 80% of the World’s Nations Recipients of Chinese Foreign Investment in 2019

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A new report from the Chinese government on outbound foreign investment indicates that more than 80% of countries and regions around the world were recipients of funds from China in 2019 despite a YoY slide in total volume.

The Ministry of Commerce (MOC, the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) recently released the “2019 China Outbound Foreign Direct Investment Statistical Report” (2019年度中国对外直接投资统计公报).

According to the report China was once again the second biggest provider of outbound foreign direct investment in 2019, as well as the third in terms of total investment.

In 2019 China’s outbound foreign direct investment totalled USD$136.91 billion, for a YoY decline of 4.3%. The investment sum nonetheless made China the world’s second biggest source of foreign direct investment after Japan ($226.65 billion).

As of the end of 2019 China’s total foreign direct investments were $2.2 trillion, third behind the United States ($7.7 trillion) and the Netherlands ($2.6 trillion).

China’s outbound foreign direct investment comprised 10.4% of the global total in 2019 – the fourth consecutive year that this figure was above 10%. China’s total foreign direct investments were 6.4% of the total, on par with 2018.

In 2019 China’s outbound foreign direct investment was 3.1% less than inbound foreign investment.

As of the end of 2019 over 27,500 Chinese domestic investors had made direct investments in 44,000 enterprises in 188 countries and regions, meaning that more than 80% of the world’s countries and regions were investment recipients.

Belt and Road countries saw direct investment from China of $18.69 billion in more 10,000 offshore enterprises in 2019, for a YoY rise of 4.5%. Belt and Road investment comprised 13.7% of outbound flows over the period.

As of the end of 2019 Belt and Road investments totalled $179.47 billion, comprising 8.2% of China’s foreign direct investments.

During the period from 2013 to 2019 China’s total investments in Belt and Road nations totalled $117.31 billion.

Aounrd 80% of China’s foreign direct investments in 2019 were in the services sector, with key areas including leasing and commercial services, wholesale and retail, finance, information communications/ software, real estate, and transit/ warehousing.

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