Foreign-funded firms in China total 446,400

BEIJING - The number of foreign-funded companies in China rose 0.37 percent from a month earlier to 446,400 by the end of November, according to official data released Wednesday.

Total registered capital of foreign-funded companies increased 0.88 percent from a month ago to 12.32 trillion yuan ($2.02 trillion), the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said in a report.

Due to the economic slowdown in China and the rest of the world, foreign companies have slowed down their investments in China since 2012.

China's actual use of foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped 3.7 percent year on year in 2012, compared with an increase of 9.72 percent posted in 2011, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

In the first 10 months of the year, FDI into the country edged up by 5.77 percent.

According to the SAIC report, China had 15.04 million companies by the end of November, up 1.35 percent month on month. Their total registered capital rose 1.36 percent to 95.29 trillion yuan.