BEIJING - Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into China shrank by 7.3 percent year-on-year to $9.27 billion in the first month of 2013, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.

The pace of decline quickened from 4.5 percent registered for December. The country's FDI inflow has been declining since June as the global economy falters and China's labor costs increase.

In January, the manufacturing sector, which received the largest share of China's FDI, used a total of $4.43 billion of overseas investment, down 5.8 percent year-on-year, MOC data showed.

FDI for the service sector marked a greater decline. The sector used $4.03 billion of overseas investment in January, down 9.8 percent year-on-year. Particularly, FDI in the property sector dipped 14 percent year-on-year, the data indicated.

Although the January FDI figures have dropped, there are some positive signs, MOC spokesman Shen Danyang told a press conference here.

In January, the European Union invested a total of $820 million in Chinese enterprises, up 81.8 percent from a year ago. A total of 140 new enterprises were founded in China on EU investment, up 30.8 percent year-on-year, according to the MOC.