Foreign investment into China rose in August for the first time in almost a year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Ministry of Commerce said that while foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country was still down in the January-August period – by 18% year-on-year – China attracted US$7.5 billion of actual foreign investment in August, up 7% from a year earlier. But a ministry spokesman on Tuesday urged caution against reading too much into the rise for a single month, stressing that China still faced significant challenges from the ongoing economic crisis. The spokesman echoed the comments of Premier Wen Jiabao, who told the World Economic Forum last week that the pickup in China’s economy remains unstable, unconsolidated and imbalanced. Wen also pointed to uncertainties that continue to cloud the economic outlook globally. The Ministry of Commerce said that August’s rise was mainly the result of investment in the manufacturing sector, which has increased to US$4.3 billion, nearly 12% from a year earlier.