S. Korea's overseas investment more than halves in H1

SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's overseas investments more than halved during the first six months of the year from a year earlier as a protracted global recession discouraged investors from taking risks abroad, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to the report by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, South Korea's
overseas investments amounted to US$8.12 billion during the January-June period,
down 53.6 percent from the same period a year earlier.
The decline is mainly due to the protracted global slowdown, which discouraged
local investors from venturing outside of the country, the report explained.
Investment in China plunged 61.5 percent to $1.15 billion over the cited period,
while in the United States investments declined 53.7 percent to $1.57 billion.
Both countries accounted for a large proportion of the overall contraction, the
report showed.