South Korea's overseas direct investment dropped significantly from a year earlier in the first nine months of the year, a government report showed Thursday, following a recent report that top South Korean firms are now sitting on more cash than ever.
   
In the January-September period, the country's overseas direct investment amounted to US$22.9 billion, down 13 percent from the same period last year, according to the report from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
  
The drop was attributed to cuts in investment in the manufacturing and financial sectors, which plunged 10.6 percent and 5.1 percent on-year, respectively.
  
The ministry report comes shortly after a local market researcher said the combined cash reserves of the country's 10 largest businesses spiked 15.1 percent from end-2013 to 125.41 trillion won ($115.48 billion) as of end-September, despite significant cuts to most of the companies' operating profits over the cited period, meaning the companies are saving instead of making fresh investments.
  
By region, fresh investment in North America spiked 48.5 percent on-year to $7.61 billion in the nine months that ended Sept. 30 with the country's investment in the United States alone surging 40.4 percent to $6.26 billion.
   
New investment in Asia dropped 11.7 percent to $7.24 billion with investment bound for China plunging 26.4 percent to $2.43 billion, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)