Antitrust probes 'won't deter investors'

Lu Jinyong, director of the China Research Center for FDI at the University of International Business and Economics, said antitrust investigations will affect FDI inflow in coming months, but not heavily.

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"Chinese market and business opportunities remain attractive to transnational corporations," Lu said.

"The slowdown in FDI this year was caused by China's slowed economic growth as a result of economic restructuring, inactive cross-border FDI amid a slow world economic recovery, a changing investment environment at home－including rising costs, vanishing preferences and increased competition."

From January to July, investment from Britain rose by 61.2 percent year-on-year to $730 million and that from South Korea by 34.6 percent to $2.92 billion.

Investment from Japan plunged by 45.4 percent to $2.83 billion as Sino-Japanese ties remained strained.

FDI from the United States fell by 17.4 percent to $1.8 billion in the same period, while that from the European Union dropped by 17.5 percent to $3.8 billion, the ministry said.

Investment from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fell by 12.7 percent year-on-year to $4.18 billion.