S Korea's foreign direct investment nearly halves in 2009

South Korea's foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first nine months of 2009 has been reduced to almost half the size reached during the same period last year amid a global economic slowdown, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to a report by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, South Korea's total outbound direct investments dipped to 13.35 billion U.S. dollars in January-September, down 48.7 percent from the same period a year earlier, when the total reached 26.05 billion U.S. dollars.

Investments to Asian countries plunged 59.5 percent on-year to 5.39 billion U.S. dollars, while those to North America dropped 45.2 percent to 3.05 billion U.S. dollars, the report said.

Overseas investments showed a declining move in overall industries, including manufacturing, mining, wholesale and retail sales, financing, and real estate sectors, according to the report.

Particularly, companies in wholesale and retail sales, financing, and real estate sectors showed a decline of more than 50 percent in outbound investments, marking an on-year 55.2 percent, 59.2 percent, and 74.2 percent decrease, respectively.

"The decline is mainly due to the worldwide economic slowdown, which caused most investors to transfer less money overseas," the report said.

"Although the decline has been continuing since the fourth quarter of 2008, the degree of the decline is slowing down," the report added.

Source:Xinhua