Aug. 17, 2012 (China Knowledge) - China's utilized foreign direct investment or FDI reached US$7.58 billion in July this year, down 8.7% YoY, according to latest statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce.

In the first seven months of 2012, the country's utilized FDI decreased 3.6% YoY to US$66.7 billion. The number of newly-approved foreign-invested firms for the seven-month period was 13,677, down 12.3% from the same period of last year.
 
During this period, China saw utilized investment from Asian countries hit US$57.3 billion, decreased 3.8% YoY, and those from the 27 European Union (E.U.) member countries dropped 2.7% to US$3.97 billion.
 
However, utilized foreign investment from the U.S. grew 1% from a year earlier to US$1.96 billion during the period.
 
Shen Danyang, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the foreign investment in the real estate sector was effectively controlled, and the utilized FDI decreased 9.3% YoY in the period.

Meanwhile, China's overseas direct investment (ODI) in the non-financial sectors surged 52.8% YoY to US$42.2 billion in the first seven months of this year.