China Foreign Direct Investment Grows 10.5% in Jan-May Vs. 11.1% Jan-Apr

BEIJING--Foreign investors' direct investment in China grew 10.5% year-over-year in the first five months of the year, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

This was a tad slower than the 11.1% increase posted during the January-April period.

The country's service sector, however, continued to record fast growth in foreign investment in the latest period, the ministry said.

China attracted 331 billion yuan ($53.8 billion) of FDI in the first five months of 2015, the commerce ministry said.

The service sector attracted $33.9 billion yuan of foreign investment in the first five months, up 23.5% from a year earlier, accounting for 63% of total FDI, the government agency said.

U.S. grain and meat company Cargill Inc., Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA.XE) and Daimler AG's (DAI.XE) Mercedes-Benz, among other multinational companies, continued to boost their investment in China, the ministry said.

Investment from the European Union stood at $3.31 billion in the first five months of the year, up 23.2% from a year earlier, according to the ministry. FDI from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations came in at $2.6 billion, up 3.6%.

Investment from the U.K., Hong Kong and Macau also grew rapidly in the period, the commerce ministry said.

--Liyan Qi