January FDI up 7.8% YoY to $8.13b

Foreign direct investment in January rose 7.8% from the same time last year, marking the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year growth, Bloomberg reported. The Ministry of Commerce said FDI totaled US$8.13 billion last month, lower than the US$12.1 billion recored in December, but still signaling a strong interest from offshore investors in an economy that grew 8.7% last year. China’s central bank recently signaled that it will slowly bring "monetary conditions back to normal levels from the counter-crisis mode" which saw bank lending reach US$1.4 trillion in 2009, creating fears of asset bubbles and upward inflationary pressures as seen in property prices which rose 9.5% year-on-year in January.