In the first seven months of 2010, foreign direct investment in China rose 20.7%, the government said on August 17.
Foreign companies pumped $58.4 billion into China in the January-July period, commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian said.
That marked an acceleration from the 19.6% growth logged in the first half of the year, and the 14.3%t growth from January to May.
In July alone, foreign direct investment totaled $6.9 billion, a jump of 29.2% over the same month in 2009, Yao said.
But Royal Bank of Scotland analyst Ben Simpfendorfer cautioned: "There's not a lot of transparency in what the figures do and don't include."
The data includes investment by overseas companies in industries such as manufacturing, real estate and agriculture but excludes money put into banks and other financial institutions.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
