China’s Investment In Belt & Road Initiative Countries Averaging US$12.76 Billion A Month

China’s Ministry of Commerce has stated that Chinese non-financial investment in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative reached US$12.78 billion during the first 11 months of 2019, equating to an average monthly investment of US1.16 billion per month. Non-financial investments include real estate and commodities.

During the same period, Chinese businesses signed joint foreign contracted projects worth a combined total of US$127.67 billion, an increase of 41.2 percent year on year, and equating to Chinese companies along the Belt & Road signing average total contracts values to US$11.6 billion each month.

Of previously agreed foreign contacted infrastructure projects, the Ministry stated that US$74.61 billion had been completed.

In the reverse trend, Belt & Road nations invested US$7.02 billion U.S. dollars in China and set up 4,964 enterprises in the country.

“It is hard to separate these statistics from China’s regular FDI inflows and outflows” says Chris Devonshire-Ellis of Dezan Shira & Associates, “meaning that it is difficult to tell whether this investment is part of the natural trends in Chinese FDI overall or has seen a specific increase due to the Belt & Road Initiative. It would be useful for the MoC to provide information on China’s normal infrastructure investment trends and superimpose the Belt & Road statistics upon that to determine the actual success rate of the BRI beyond established trends.”

Overall foreign investment into China rose by 6% in 2019 despite the impact of the US-China trade war.

Investment and participation trends concerning the Belt & Road Initiative, and how foreign companies can participate can be viewed in the article China’s Belt & Road Initiative: Where We Are And What Is Arriving In 2020.

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