Overseas-invested businesses operating in Shanghai have been faring slightly worse in terms of foreign trade growth compared to the city's average foreign trade growth this year.

When contacted by Xinhua on Tuesday, a spokesman from the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce said the slowdown in foreign trade began six months ago and the downturn would continue in the last quarter of the year. He cited the adverse impact of the global financial meltdown as the cause.

According to commission statistics, businesses financed with overseas money, which contribute to two-thirds of Shanghai's foreign trade, did US$186.28 billion worth of foreign trade in the first 10 months of the year, up 19.37 percent year on year.

The growth range, however, was 0.4 percentage points smaller than the average of foreign trade done by all the other businesses in the city for the same period.

In a breakdown, overseas-invested businesses exported goods worth US$95.8 billion, up 21.82 percent. The growth rate was 0.8 percentage points less than the average growth rate of exports from all companies in the city.

Overseas-backed ventures imported US$90.48 billion worth of goods in the past 10 months. That's up 16.88 percent from one year ago, which is the same average import growth of all the businesses in the city.

As of late October, more than 50,000 overseas-backed- ventures had been approved for establishment in Shanghai. That results in US$80 billion worth of overseas direct investment.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2008)