CHINA’S outbound direct investment rose 8.5 percent to US$74.7 billion in 2011, slowing from the year before, government data showed Thursday, but extending a decade-long expansion streak as domestic firms are officially encouraged to venture abroad.

Annual growth in 2011 marked a sharp slowdown from an annual increase of 22 percent the previous year.

China has been prodding local firms to invest in natural resources abroad and to acquire foreign technology, which helps reduce international payments surpluses and slows the buildup of foreign exchange reserves.

Chinese outbound investment grew an annual average of 45 percent between 2002 and 2011, according to figures jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce, State Administration of Foreign Exchange and National Bureau of Statistics.

Among the total outward capital flows, investment by non-financial companies reached US$68.6 billion in 2011, rising 14 percent from a year earlier, the commerce ministry said. That is up from the preliminary US$60.1 billion figure released in January.

In contrast, investments by financial institutions dropped 29.7 percent to US$6.1 billion during the same period, as the festering European debt crisis exacerbated the volatility in the global financial market, official data showed.

“Compared with non-financial firms, many countries have laid some restrictions on foreign investments into their financial sector,” said Wang Chunking, a director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

(SD-Agencies)