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

In June, FDI fell 6.8 percent year on year to $8.96 billion, 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 to set up in China in June, down 3.8 percent from the same period last year, according to Yao.