Foreign direct investment drops 1.2%

Foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland dropped 1.2 percent year-on-year between January and July to 485.42 billion yuan ($72.66 billion), official data released by the Ministry of Commerce showed on Tuesday.

A total of 17,703 newly-funded foreign companies were established in the first seven months, up 12 percent from same period a year ago, according to a statement from the ministry.

"The FDI volume was basically stable from January to July, and the structure continued to optimize," said Lin Guijun, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

The high-tech manufacturing and service sectors attracted 37.39 billion yuan and 70.31 billion yuan of foreign investment, respectively, between January and July, up 8.3 percent and 16.8 percent year-on-year.

"FDI to China is likely to remain stable in the second half of this year, especially in areas such as consumer goods, software development, leasing and information services, as foreign companies are realizing that China's growing middle class will have higher levels of disposable income and that the country is shifting to a productivity-driven growth model," Lin said.

Attracted by China's strong market potential in cloud-computing and other technology-related businesses, Dell Inc pledged in 2015 to invest $125 billion in China by 2020 to boost innovation, research and development, and other areas.