(Yicai Global) June 16 -- Foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland in actual use fell in US dollar terms in the first five months of this year, mainly because of exchange rate moves and the record high comparative base a year earlier, a commerce ministry official said.

The figure fell 5.6 percent to USD84.4 billion in the five months ended May 31 from a year earlier, official data showed yesterday. 

The Chinese yuan stood at 6.7 against the US dollar in May last year, compared with 7 in the same month of 2023, according to the average of the central parity rate released by the People's Bank of China. The yuan has slumped more than 4 percent against the dollar over the past year.

Foreign investment used in big projects in the first five months of last year drove China's FDI use to a record high, creating a large base number, the head of the ministry's foreign investment department said yesterday.

Foreign investment is a market behavior, and it takes time from when multinationals make investment decisions to when they actually invest, the official added. Senior executives of many multinationals have visited China this year, and foreign firms are generally confident about China's economy and willing to invest and further their local businesses, the person said.

In yuan terms, actual use of FDI rose 0.1 percent to CNY574.8 billion (USD80.7 billion) in the January to May period, the ministry data showed. But the growth rate slowed 2.1 percentage points from the four months ended April 30.

The number of new foreign-funded firms in China jumped 38 percent to 18,532 in the period from the same point last year, according to official figures.

Editor: Martin Kadiev