China FDI net inflows · 2025
$79.98BWorld Bank · FDI net inflows ↗
BoP net flow · 0.41% of GDP
Economy · cross-border direct investment
Foreign direct investment
One archived World Bank/WDI snapshot tracks China’s FDI net inflows, net outflows, GDP ratios, world share and long-run economy rankings. FDI is a net flow and can be negative; it is not FDI stock or a synonym for new factory investment.
China share of world FDI net inflows · 2025
5.94%World Bank · FDI net inflows ↗
China $80.0B ÷ World $1,346.7B
China FDI net outflows · 2025
$157.21BWorld Bank · FDI net outflows ↗
BoP net flow · 0.81% of GDP
Complete global ranking · 2024
#15World Bank · FDI net inflows ↗
China among the top 15 positive net inflows; 2025 cross-economy coverage is incomplete and excluded
Before reading the charts
FDI is a net cross-border direct-investment flow, not a universal score
The World Bank/WDI series use a balance-of-payments direct-investment concept. Both inflows and outflows can be negative, and financial centres, holding companies and corporate restructuring can materially affect annual values. This page never turns negative values into zero and never silently equates WDI FDI with China MOFCOM’s utilized-foreign-capital measure.
Five boundaries
Net flows can be negative
Net flow ≠ FDI stock
WDI BoP FDI ≠ MOFCOM utilized foreign capital
Large financial-centre FDI ≠ equal new physical investment
2025 stays out of the global ranking
01
What FDI actually measures
Control or significant influence—not every cross-border capital flow
FDI generally describes a cross-border investment relationship in which an investor has control or a significant degree of influence over an enterprise in another economy. WDI includes equity capital, reinvested earnings and other direct-investment capital; ownership of 10% or more of ordinary voting shares is an important criterion for a direct-investment relationship. Portfolio securities are outside this concept.
02
China’s long-run FDI inflows
Inward and outward direct investment are now both material flows
China’s net-inflow series begins in 1979 and net outflows in 1982. Current-dollar values reflect transaction size, exchange rates, corporate restructuring and revisions. A negative annual net flow does not mean “no foreign investment”; it means the net balance fell below zero.
China long-run trend
FDI net inflows and net outflows
Billion current US dollars; negative values are preserved. Inflows and outflows are different directional balance-of-payments net flows and should not be casually subtracted into “money gained” or “capital flight”.
View exact milestone values
| Year | Net inflows (US$ bn) | Net outflows (US$ bn) |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | +0.00 | — |
| 1992 | +11.16 | +4.00 |
| 2001 | +47.05 | +9.70 |
| 2008 | +171.53 | +56.74 |
| 2015 | +242.49 | +174.39 |
| 2020 | +253.10 | +153.72 |
| 2024 | +42.65 | +192.20 |
| 2025 | +79.98 | +157.21 |
Source: World Bank · FDI net inflows ↗ · World Bank · FDI net outflows ↗ · WDI balance-of-payments net flows; negative values are not zero-filledchinainfigures.com
03
China share of world FDI
Share shows relative position, but the world denominator also moves sharply
The world share divides China by the WDI WLD world aggregate from the same archived snapshot rather than hand-summing positive economies. Because FDI is a net flow, both the world total and China can move sharply with disinvestment, reverse investment, corporate restructuring and revisions; a rising share does not necessarily mean China’s absolute inflow also rose.
04
How the global ranking changes
Rank positive net inflows only; never disguise negative values as zero
The animation runs from 1990 through 2024. Each year must have at least 150 real economies with values and at least 100 positive observations before taking the top 15 positive net inflows. China and World already have 2025 values, but only 97 real economies do, so 2025 stays out of the global ranking.
Broad-coverage animated ranking
Top 15 economies by FDI net inflows
Billion current US dollars; large flows through financial and holding centres are not equivalent to the same amount of new factory investment.
2024
Comparison boundary: Only 97 real economies have 2025 net-inflow values in this snapshot, so the ranking stops at 2024.
Accessible exact-value table for the current year
| Rank | Economy | FDI net inflows (US$ bn) |
|---|
Source: World Bank · FDI net inflows ↗ · Real economies; top 15 positive net inflows; 1990–2024; no interpolation or zero fillchinainfigures.com
05
Switch to a GDP-relative ruler
Absolute dollars favour large economies; GDP share asks about relative importance
FDI net inflows as a share of GDP scale annual inflows by the size of the domestic economy. This is more useful for relative importance, but small financial centres can show extremely high ratios, so the percentage is still not a universal investment-attractiveness score.
Scale-adjusted international comparison
FDI net inflows as a share of GDP in selected economies
Long-run trends for China, the United States, Germany, France, India and Brazil; missing years remain missing.
Source: World Bank · FDI inflows/GDP ↗ · Negative and missing values are preserved from WDIchinainfigures.com
06
China is also an outward direct investor
Inflows and outflows answer two directional questions
Net inflows describe the net direct-investment flow into the reporting economy; net outflows describe residents’ net direct investment into enterprises abroad. High outflows do not automatically mean capital flight, and low inflows do not automatically prove a worsening investment climate; interpretation also requires corporate restructuring, reinvested earnings, M&A, special-purpose entities and policy context.
Latest complete common year
2024 FDI net inflows and net outflows across selected economies
2024 is the latest year in which all four FDI series are available for all 12 selected economies. Bars crossing the zero line indicate negative net flows.
| Economy | Net inflows | Net outflows |
|---|---|---|
| China | +42.65 | +192.20 |
| United States | +297.06 | +322.17 |
| Singapore | +135.08 | +63.61 |
| Hong Kong SAR, China | +125.82 | +80.54 |
| Netherlands | -17.06 | -5.93 |
| United Kingdom | -12.96 | -72.50 |
| Germany | +62.64 | +87.04 |
| France | +52.05 | +41.73 |
| India | +27.14 | +24.25 |
| Brazil | +74.09 | +26.34 |
| Canada | +63.05 | +89.43 |
| Australia | +53.72 | +13.93 |
Source: World Bank · FDI net inflows ↗ · World Bank · FDI net outflows ↗ · 2024 is the latest complete common year across all four FDI series and 12 selected economieschinainfigures.com
07
What FDI figures cannot answer
Flow rankings are not rankings of investment quality, jobs or technology transfer
FDI net flows alone cannot tell us the scale of new factories, foreign-firm employment, technology transfer, supply-chain “de-risking”, the stock of foreign-owned assets or an economy’s overall investor friendliness. Those questions require additional data on greenfield projects, cross-border M&A, stocks, employment, sector composition and policy.
Net flow
Can be negative
Disinvestment, reverse investment and other offsetting transactions can push the annual net balance below zero.
Financial centres
High flows do not equal high physical investment
Holding companies, special-purpose entities and multinational restructuring can amplify annual FDI flows.
Statistical concept
Do not silently mix measures
WDI balance-of-payments FDI and MOFCOM utilized foreign capital answer related but different questions.
Latest year
2025 is used only where coverage supports it
China and WLD have 2025 values, but cross-economy reporting is materially incomplete, so the ranking stops at 2024.
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Foreign direct investment indicator prepared
Prepared a World Bank/WDI FDI indicator with four balance-of-payments series, 1979–2025 China/world inflow share and a broad-coverage 1990–2024 top-15 animated ranking.
Related sources: World Bank ↗ · World Bank ↗ · World Bank ↗ · World Bank ↗
Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed
Data downloads and revision timeline added
Added page-level formal-data CSV files, chart-level CSV/PNG/SVG exports and a bilingual revision timeline to all indicator pages.
Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed