FDI in Shanghai rises nearly 41% in April

Shanghai's foreign direct investment surged nearly 41 percent in April, with the total contract value of Sino-foreign projects soaring by nearly twice the amount in the same month last year.

The total FDI contract amount of 363 projects in the city jumped 40.9 percent from a year ago to US$3.95 billion last month, data from the Shanghai Statistics Bureau showed.

Fourteen projects in the industrial sector attracted a FDI contract value of US$2.08 billion, up 11.5 times from a year earlier, while FDI in services fell 24.6 percent to US$2 billion to notch a bigger drop of 5.4 percentage points from March.

But the FDI contract value in Sino-foreign joint ventures soared nearly 200 percent to US$2.08 billion, taking up 52.7 percent in newly-added FDI contract amount in the city, the bureau said.

Shanghai's foreign trade rose three percent to 259.27 billion yuan (US$40.63 billion) in April.

Exports grew 5.4 percent to 103.08 billion yuan in April year on year, and imports added 1.5 percent annually to 156.19 billion yuan.

Exports from state-owned enterprises in the city dipped 0.8 percent and imports shed 0.5 percent. Foreign funded companies, however, imported 9.3 percent more year on year and exported 2.8 percent higher from a year ago.

In April, Shanghai's exports to the US rose 1.2 percent to 22.84 billion yuan year on year. The city's exports to the European Union, Japan and Hong Kong also all increased.

The Consumer Price Index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.4 percent year on year last month in Shanghai, and the Producer Price Index grew 1.2 percent, flat from March.