BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China utilized 27.41 billion U.S. dollars worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first quarter, up 61.26 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a release on Thursday. It did not elaborate on the figures.

    The growth rate was 49.7 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

    China's FDI utilization has been rising steadily this year. The actual use of FDI in January jumped 109.78 percent from a year earlier. During the following two months, the figure rose about 39percent.

    The number of newly approved foreign-funded enterprises shrank 25.26 percent in the first three months from a year earlier, to 6,949.

    By origin, the number of new U.S.-funded enterprises fell 31.95percent year-on-year, although their total investment soared 37.51percent. As for the European Union, 15 countries saw newly-approved companies fall 24.74 percent in number, although overall investment climbed 51.15 percent.

    Foreign direct investment has contributed to China's excess liquidity and massive build-up in foreign exchange reserves, which were the world's largest (1.65 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of February.