Mubasher: Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China grew 4.8% year-on-year in January, slowing down sharply from a 23.2% increase in December 2018, official data showed on Thursday.

In Chinese yuan (CNY) terms, FDI inflows to the world’s second biggest eoconomy came in at CNY 84.18 billion ($12.42 billion) in January, the Ministry of Commerce said.

Foreign investments for the Chinese service sector more than doubled that for the manufacturing segment, reaching CNY 56.2 billion.

The high-tech segment posted solid FDI volumes, surging by 40.9% on year.

For central China, FDI totalled CNY 7.04 billion, climbing 11.6% from a year ago.

A total of 4,646 new foreign-invested firms were set up in the first month of 2019, down 10.6 percent year on year.

By 12:38 pm GMT, the USD/CNY pair rose 0.21% to CNY 6.7745.