South Korea's overseas direct investment rose 12.1 percent on-year in the first half of this year, fueled by local businesses' efforts to strengthen their presence in the United States and some Southeast Asian countries, government data showed Tuesday.
  

Companies invested a combined $17.45 billion abroad in the January-June period, compared with $15.57 billion a year earlier, according to the data by the finance ministry. This figure is also larger than $16.67 billion sent abroad in the first six month of 2013.
  

The increase comes after overseas investments started falling in 2011 and stood at $35.07 billion last year, down 1.5 percent from the year before.
  

In the six-month period, investments in the retail and wholesale sectors shot up 83 percent with numbers for the financial and insurance and mining sectors each advancing 172 percent and 9.8 percent on-year. On the other hand, investments made in manufacturing contracted 6.3 percent compared to the year before, with funds going into real estate purchases backtracking 57.8 percent.
  

Investment going to the United States rose 20.5 percent on-year to $4.43 billion, with figures for Vietnam and Singapore moving up 82.2 percent and 161.6 percent, respectively.
 

Money destined for Europe fell 12.8 percent on-year to $1.7 billion, with data showing investment going to China dropping 32.1 percent.
  

"Gains were mostly fueled by the steady pace of economic recovery in the U.S. as well as some Asian economies," the ministry said. It added the rise comes as overall global investment numbers are moving up this year.
  

According to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, overseas investment numbers are expected to rise to $1.37 trillion for the whole of 2015, up 11.4 percent from $1.23 trillion reported for the previous year.
  

The ministry, meanwhile, predicted that South Korea's overseas investment that rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2014, should rise this year.
  

Despite such predictions, it said there are downside risks, like lingering uncertainties in the eurozone, weakening of growth in emerging markets and geopolitical risks that can affect outflow of funds. (Yonhap)