At the regular news conference held on Nov. 18, 2014, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce presented figures on the utilization of foreign capital, outward FDI, consumption and other economic activity for the first 10 months of 2014.

According to Shen Danyang, from January to October this year, 19,239 new foreign-funded enterprises were established, a year-on-year growth of 5.8 percent, and the actual use of foreign capital was 95.9 billion USD, down 1.2 percent year-on-year (not including the data from the banking, security and insurance sectors). In the month of October, 1,992 new foreign-funded enterprises were established, a year-on-year growth of 8.7 percent, and the actual use of foreign capital was 8.5 billion USD, a year-on-year growth of 1.3 percent.

Shen said that the decline of foreign investment from Japan, U.S. and the EU is mainly reflected in the manufacturing industry. China's manufacturing industry suffers from excess production capacity and is under pressure to restructure and upgrade. The private, state-owned and foreign-funded sectors are all in transformation.

"Although the proportion of foreign capital utilization in the manufacturing industry is falling, the actual use of foreign capital in the service industry continues to grow. Foreign investment has moved towards the service industry," said Shen. Statistics shows that from January to October this year, the actual use of foreign capital in the service industry was 53.1 billion USD, a year-on-year growth of 6.6 percent, accounting for 55.4 percent of the total foreign investment in China.

In October, total retail sales of consumer goods were 2.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 11.5 percent. After adjusting for inflation, the actual growth is 10.8 percent. From January to October this year, total retail sales of consumer goods increased 12 percent.

In 2014, the domestic consumer market of China is basically stable. Monthly growth in consumption has fallen back moderately. "Consumption serves as a 'stabilizer' of economic growth under the background of falling investment," said Shen. 

The article is edited and translated from 《外商更加青睐服务业》; Source: People's Daily; Author:Wang Ke.