Foreign Direct Investment
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced on October 4 that foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Korea for the first three quarters of this year increased 13.4% from a year ago and reached a new high on a reporting basis. The total value of arrival decreased 40.2% though. Specifically, the values are US$15.05 billion and US$6.68 billion, respectively.
During the three quarters, the reported amount increased by 46.2% to US$4.317 billion in the manufacturing sector, increased by 14.9% to US$10.226 billion in the service sector, and decreased by 64.4% to US$507 million in the others. The actual investment fell 51.1% to US$1.976 billion in manufacturing, 21.6% to US$4.594 billion in service and 91.2% to US$112 million in the others.
When it comes to sources of investment on a reporting basis, the EU represented US$5.319 billion (up 194.8%) and China represented US$1.663 billion (up 8.7%) while the amounts were US$3.073 billion (up 3.2%), US$886 million (down 25.8%) and US$4.108 billion (down 28.7%) for the United States, Japan and the others.
Actual investment by Chinese investors totaled US$227 million (down 84.2%). The amount was US$732 million (down 49%), US$569 million (down 33.4%), US$2.828 billion (down 18.5%) and US$2.327 billion (down 41.5%) in the case of investors in the U.S., Japan, the EU and the others.