Foreign investment in China is down almost 30% over the last year, according to a report in China Daily:
Foreign investment use has seen consecutive falls in China since October, when a 2.02-percent annual drop was recorded.
Yao Jian, an MOC spokesman, attributed the January decline to the global financial crisis and an unusually high level in the same month of last year.
The week-long Chinese New Year holiday in late January also affected the monthly foreign investment figure, he said at a press conference.
The slump in January was slightly slower than the 36.52-percent decrease in November, but the whole-year situation would still be grim, said Zhang Yansheng, head of the International Economic Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission.