China's foreign direct investment fell by 33 per cent year-on-year in January due to the global financial crisis, the commerce ministry said on Monday, dpa repirted.
The size of the fourth consecutive monthly drop in foreign direct investment was also influenced by last month's lunar new holiday and a particularly high total in January 2008, ministry spokesman Yao Jian told reporters.
China officially used foreign investment valued at 7.54 billion dollars last month, Yao said.
News of falling investment follows millions of job losses in coastal areas specializing in exports, the largest monthly drop in exports for 13 years in January, and plunging urban property prices.
Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday said China needed a "profound understanding of the severity of the international financial crisis and uncertainties caused by it".
Wen told a meeting on economic policy that China must "fully gauge the difficulties ahead and be more decisive in taking policy measures."
"We should strengthen confidence [so] that the country's economic fundamentals and the optimistic trend remain unchanged," the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.
"We certainly have the confidence, conditions and capabilities to overcome the difficulties," he said.
Wen is preparing to deliver a key address on economic policy and performance next month at the annual National People's Congress, the nominal parliament of the ruling Communist Party.