(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-13 20:57

The flood of foreign investment pouring into China rose 18 percent in July from a year ago to US$5 billion, the government said Monday.

The number of new foreign-financed companies approved in July fell 1 percent from the same month last year to 2,993, the Commerce Ministry said on its Web site.

China has been one of the world's biggest recipients of foreign investment for more than a decade.

For the first seven months of the year, total foreign investment rose 13 percent over the same period in 2006 to US$36.9 billion (euro27 billion), the Commerce Ministry said.