China brought in a record $334 billion in net foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, a 32% year-on-year increase, reports Caixin. Net FDI inflows are a large part of total net overseas investment into China, which itself jumped 13% to $661.6 billion in 2021, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
Another major component of net inbound investment—net portfolio investment—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.