China's foreign direct investment (FDI) grew by about 55 percent in August, which indicated strong confidence by foreign investors in the Chinese economy despite the government's credit tightening moves.

The nation registered an actual FDI of US$43.559 billion in the first eight months, up 18.77 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The contracted direct investment, an indicator of future trends, increased by 38.89 percent to US$93.792 billion in the period.

The ministry said China approved 28,748 new foreign-invested ventures in the first eight months, up 11.73 percent.

The ministry did not provide specific data for August alone.

Based on calculations using official information, actual FDI in August was US$5.156 billion, up 55.3 percent from a year earlier.

The growth rate of actual FDI hit a record high this year, compared with 14.16 percent of June and 15.5 percent of May this year.

Analysts contributed the high rate to the small base in August last year, which was impacted by the aftermath of the SARS outbreak.

In another development, catering industry sales increased by 19.6 percent to 60.6 billion yuan (US$7.3 billion) in August, which makes total sales of 456.1 billion yuan (US$55.1 billion) in the first eight months of this year.

(China Daily September 16, 2004)