China's FDI inflow falls for third month

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China fell for the third consecutive month in August as global economic woes continued to weigh heavily, new data revealed on Wednesday.

The FDI the country drew last month dropped 1.43 percent from a year earlier to 8.33 billion U.S. dollars, the Ministry of Commerce announced.

This brought the total FDI inflow for the first eight months of 2012 to 74.99 billion U.S. dollars, down 3.4 percent year on year, said ministry spokesman Shen Danyang.

Investment from the debt-plagued European Union (EU) dropped 4.1 percent year on year in the January-August period and that from the United States was down 2.85 percent, according to Shen.

In the first seven months of the year, investment from the EU, China's largest trade partner, dropped 2.7 percent from a year ago.

Investment from Japan rose 16.2 percent from a year earlier, he said, adding this compares to a 50-percent increase in 2011.