China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM ) had this warning for the country's economy today. It says China's export outlook is grim, and demand may be weaker still in the months ahead. MOFCOM also says that China is seeing the longest period of decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) since the global financial crisis.

Data from MOFCOM shows, FDI into China fell for the third consecutive month in August as global economic woes continue to weigh on the world's second-largest economy.

FDI in China dropped almost 1.5 percent last month from a year earlier to $8.33 billion. This brought total FDI inflows for the first eight months of 2012 to just under $75 billion, down 3.4 percent year on year.

Shen Danyang, spokesman of MOFCOM, said, "FDI drew by China's services sector went up in August, despite foreign investment into the property sector continuing to decline last month. But the amount of FDI attracted by China's central regions maintained relatively fast growth. Investment from some European countries such as Germany, Netherlands, and French also increased in August."

But still, a raft of weak economic data for August left investors betting more policy action will be needed by the government to shore up growth.

MOFCOM's spokesman said China's export outlook remains grim in the coming months, and the ministry is going ahead with its policies unveiled last week to stabilize export growth.

Shen said, "There are still uncertainties looming over the global economic recovery in the future and we expect external demand in the coming months may be weaker than that in the first eight months."

China's exports grew 2.7 percent year on year in August, up from 1 percent in the previous month but still below market expectations of 3 percent. MOFCOM blamed the low export growth on higher export costs, an unfavourable trading environment and waning external demand caused by the global economic downturn, especially the worsening debt crisis in the euro zone.

(CNTV.cn September 20, 2012)