The value of foreign direct investment in China grew to 60.2 billion yuan (US$9.21 billion) last month, 1.2 percent more than a year earlier, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government-run news agency, citing data from the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing, says that in

the first nine months of this year FDI in China expanded to 609.03 billion yuan, 4.2 percent more than in the corresponding period last year.

FDI from the European Union expanded by 48.7 percent to 50.59 billion yuan in the first nine months, while Association of Southeast Asian Nations FDI contracted by 7 percent to 32.47 billion yuan, Xinhua says.