Foreign investment in China falls again in August

Foreign direct investment in China fell again in August, the government said Wednesday, amid stubborn weakness in both the global and Chinese economies. Investment from overseas declined by 1.4 percent from a year earlier to $8.3 billion last month, the commerce ministry said in a statement. The August fall continued a downward trend that goes back to November, with the exception of May, when FDI eked out a marginal gain of 0.05 percent. The government has blamed the slump on the slowdown in global economic growth, the prolonged European debt crisis and rising costs and weak demand within China. Growth in China, the world's second-largest economy, has slowed for six consecutive quarters and expanded 7.6 percent in the three months ended June 30, its worst performance in three years. For the first eight months of the year, overseas companies invested $75.0 billion in factories and other projects in China, down 3.4 percent from the same period a year ago, the statement said. Investment by the 27 member countries of the European Union slumped by 4.1 percent on year in the January-August period, while that from the United States dropped by 2.9 percent, it said. Fund flows from 10 Asian countries and regions including Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea also slumped by five percent year-on-year in the period, it added.