Foreign direct investment (FDI) in mainland China jumped 17 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2015, to US$22.48 billion, reported state-owned news agency Xinhua, quoting data from the Ministry of Commerce.

The pace slowed from a 29.4 percent increase registered in January. However, it exceeded the annual growth rate of 1.7 percent posted for 2014, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

FDI in the services sector accounted for 61 percent of all FDI during the first two months of 2015. Within that sector, financial services and transport services attracted the largest portion of investment.

The number of newly registered foreign-funded companies in mainland China jumped 38.6 percent in the first two months of the year, to 3,831, the Ministry’s data showed.

Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Japan were the top five FDI contributors during the period.