China's foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by 17.9 percent to 43 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of the year from last year's level, said Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, on Wednesday.

In June, FDI fell by 6.8 percent year-on-year to 8.96 billion USD, up 11 percentage points from the May level, Yao said. This is the ninth straight monthly fall in FDI since last October.

A total of 2,529 foreign companies had earned permission for setup in China in June, down 3.8 percent from the same period last year, according to Yao.