South Korea's overseas direct investment fell in the third quarter amid the downturn of the semiconductor and display panel sectors, a government report showed Friday, reports agency..
Direct investment, made overseas by local companies, amounted to 12.78 billion U.S. dollars in the July-September quarter, down 5.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
It marked the first decline in six quarters since the first quarter of last year as the semiconductor and display panel industries slumped amid the global economic slowdown.
The ministry said most of the large-scale investment for this year was made in the first half, noting that small-scale investments were made in the third quarter.
Overseas direct investment in the manufacturing industry tumbled 32.5 percent over the year to 3.11 billion dollars in the September quarter. It was the biggest slide since the third quarter of 2014.
Investment in the finance and insurance sector advanced 10.6 percent to 5.3 billion dollars, with the investment in the overseas real estate industry jumping 61.2 percent to 2.16 billion dollars.
Overseas investment in the mining and the whole and retail sectors gained 4.3 percent and 8.8 percent respectively.
Investment in the United States tumbled 26.5 percent to 2.85 billion dollars in the cited period, but it took up 22.3 percent of the total overseas investment.
It was followed by the Cayman Islands with 1.6 billion dollars, France with 1.09 billion dollars, Luxembourg with 1.05 billion dollars and China with 1.01 billion dollars each.
