May. 15, 2012 (China Knowledge) - China's utilized foreign direct investment or FDI reached US$8.40 billion in March this year, down 0.74% year on year, reflecting a decline for the sixth consecutive month, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce.
 
The decline in FDI last month was narrowed from a 6.1% drop in March.

In the first four months of this year, the country's utilized FDI fell 2.38% year on year to US$37.88 billion.  The number of newly-approved foreign-invested firms was 7,016 during the period, down 13.94% from the same period of 2011.

The manufacturing sector utilized US$17.02 billion worth of foreign direct investment, down 4.4% year on year. Utilized FDI in the primary sector dipped 0.9% year on year to RMB 610 million. The service sector saw its utilized FDI fall 3.1% to US$17.71 billion. The computer application, polytechnical and financial service sectors all recorded growth of more than 30% in utilized FDI.

Utilized foreign investment from the 27 European Union (E.U.) member countries fall 27.9% to US$1.9 billion, while that from Japan and the U.S. rose 16% and 1.9% year on year to US$2.7 billion and US$1.05 billion, respectively. Investment from the ten Asian countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Japan, climbed 0.6% to US$33.08 billion.

China's eastern region utilized US$32.36 billion of foreign direct investment in the first four months, 2.5% less than in the same period of 2011 and accounting for 85.4% of the country's total. Utilized FDI in the western region declined 15.2% year on year to US$2.47 billion, while that in the central region grew 12.6% to US$3.05 billion.