China to attract more foreign investment

Last week, the International Monetary Fund raised its growth forecast for the Chinese economy from 6.2 percent (which it had predicted in January) to 6.3 percent for 2019. At the same time, it downgraded its global growth forecast from 3.5 percent to 3.3 percent owing to poor world economic growth, including that of the United States.

Last year, despite obstacles such as domestic deleveraging and Sino-US trade conflicts, foreign investment in China increased, defying the global downward trend. According to Ministry of Commerce data, the actual amount of foreign capital utilized in China last year was $134.97 billion, up 3 percent year-on-year. And in China's manufacturing industry, the actual amount of foreign capital utilized increased 20.1 percent year-on-year - or 30.6 percent of the actual foreign capital utilized in the country - 4.8 percentage points higher than 2017.

According to the United Nations' latest Global Investment Trend Monitor, the total foreign direct investment globally last year was close to $1.2 trillion - 19 percent less than in 2017 - with the US still attracting the highest amount of foreign investment ($226 billion).