The investment scale continues to remain at the forefront of the world!

2025-09-09 09:12:06 · News Office of the Ministry of Commerce

On September 8th, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange jointly released the "2024 Statistical Bulletin on China's Outward Direct Investment" (hereinafter referred to as the "Bulletin"). The Bulletin is divided into six parts, including an overview of China's outward foreign direct investment, the stock of China's outward foreign direct investment flow, China's direct investment in major economies around the world, the composition of outward foreign direct investors, the composition of outward foreign direct investment enterprises, and the appendix, comprehensively reflecting the situation of China's outward foreign direct investment in 2024.

The main characteristics of China's outward foreign direct investment in 2024 are as follows:

The investment scale continues to remain at the forefront of the world, and the global proportion of traffic has increased by 0.5 percentage points. In 2024, China's outward direct investment flow was 192.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 8.4% over the previous year, accounting for 11.9% of the global share, an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the previous year, ranking among the top three in the world for 13 consecutive years, and accounting for over 10% of the global share for nine consecutive years. At the end of 2024, China's outward direct investment stock reached 3.14 trillion US dollars, ranking among the top three in the world for eight consecutive years.

Overseas enterprises cover over 80% of countries and regions worldwide, with good annual business performance. By the end of 2024, Chinese domestic investors have set up 52000 overseas enterprises in 190 countries and regions around the world, including 19000 overseas enterprises in countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road". In 2024, overseas enterprises reinvested their earnings of 77.89 billion US dollars, accounting for 40.5% of the same period's traffic, and 70% of overseas enterprises made profits or remained unchanged.

The investment fields continue to diversify, with over 80% invested in five major areas. In 2024, China's outward foreign direct investment covers 18 industry sectors of the national economy, with investments flowing into five areas including wholesale and retail, leasing and business services, manufacturing, finance, and mining all exceeding 10 billion US dollars. The investment in the construction industry, information transmission/software, and information technology services has grown rapidly, with growth rates of 80.5% and 205.5%, respectively.

The investment in Asia, Latin America, Europe and Oceania continued to grow, and the direct investment in countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" exceeded 20%. In 2024, nearly 80% of China's outward direct investment will flow to Asia, an increase of 8.5% compared to the previous year. Among them, China's investment in ASEAN will be 34.36 billion US dollars, an increase of 36.8%. Investments in Latin America, Europe, and Oceania increased by 15.4%, 25.3%, and 113.7% respectively. In 2024, the direct investment in countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" will be 50.99 billion US dollars, up 22.9% over the previous year, accounting for 26.5% of the year's foreign direct investment flow.

Non publicly owned controlling economic entities are active in outward investment, and local enterprises have a relatively fast growth rate in outward investment. In 2024, non-public controlled economic entities invested 91.37 billion US dollars in foreign direct investment, an increase of 24.6%, accounting for 54.3% of the total non-financial direct investment. Local enterprises invested 108.43 billion US dollars abroad, an increase of 16.8%, 8.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, with Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Shandong ranking among the top three.

The mutual benefit and win-win effect is significant, and its contribution to the world economy is increasingly prominent. In 2024, China's outward investment drove exports of goods worth 211 billion US dollars, an increase of 13%, accounting for 5.9% of the total value of goods exports during the same period. Overseas enterprises achieved sales revenue of 3.6 trillion US dollars, paid taxes of 82.1 billion US dollars to the investment location, and had a total of 5.021 million employees at the end of the year, of which 65.8% were foreign employees.