China’s non-financial overseas investment nearly halved in the first six months of 2017 due to tighter capital restrictions and rising global uncertainty. It fell 45.8% year-on-year to USD48.19 billion in the first half, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. In June alone, outbound investment dropped 11.3% from a year earlier to USD13.6 billion. At the end of 2016 China introduced tighter controls over funds moving out of the country and increased scrutiny of domestic companies’ foreign investments. Last month banking regulators said they were examining bank loans taken out by the country’s top deal-making companies including Anbang Insurance, Fosun, HNA and Dalian Wanda. “Unreasonable outbound investments have been effectively curbed,” MOFCOM Spokesman Gao Feng said. He noted that Chinese foreign investment in industries like property, hotels, cinemas and entertainment have dropped 82.5% year-on-year. In particular, investment in overseas property fell 82.1% year-on-year in the first half, accounting for just 2% of total outbound investment during the period. Mergers and acquisitions confirmed the downward trend. According to consulting firm Mergermarket, deals by Chinese companies in the hotel, property and entertainment sectors surged 233% year-on-year in 2016, reaching USD15.86 billion across 33 different transactions, but starting from January this year, only 14 deals with a combined value of USD1.6 billion have been recorded, the lowest since 2013. Mergermarket’s global M&A report shows 27 fewer Chinese deals with Europe in the first half of 2017, with deal value dropping 65.7% to USD25.6 billion across 59 transactions, compared with the record of USD74.8 billion across 86 deals seen in the first half of 2016, the South China Morning Post reports.