Foreign direct investment in China fell in March for the fifth consecutive month, official figures showed today.
The falls comes as Europe struggled with its debt crisis and economic weakness.
Investment from overseas fell 6.1% in March from a year earlier to $11.8 billion, the commerce ministry said.
In the first three months of the year, FDI reached $29.48 billion, down 2.8% from the same time in 2011.
Investment from the European Union, which is grappling with a major sovereign debt crisis, tumbled 31.2% to $1.4 billion in the January-March period.
Europe is China's key trading partner and its ongoing economic troubles have been hurting the Asian giant, which said on Friday that its economy grew at its slowest pace in almost three years.
However, today's figures showed investment from the US rose 10.1% in the first quarter to reach $893m, as the world's largest economy shows signs it is back on track.
"FDI has been slowing due to the global economic downturn," Sheng Danyang, a commerce ministry spokesman, said. "I believe FDI will remain grim for the rest of the year," he added.
