China attracted US$8.53 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in October, up by 1.3 percent from a year earlier, but the year-to-date inflows declined for four consecutive months, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced on November 18.

The October growth was slower than the 1.9 percent growth in September, but it still beats the growth estimates of 1.1 percent compiled by China’s official news agency Xinhua and financial agency Bloomberg.

China drew US$95.88 billion in FDI in the first 10 months of this year, down by 1.2 percent year-on-year. The world’s second largest economy suffered a 14 percent decline in FDI in August to US$7.2 billion, its worst level since February 2012.

Shen Danyang, the ministry’s spokesman, told a press conference on November 18: “If [any nations] want to expand their investments in China, they should now turn their focus to the services industry [from the manufacturing sector].”

In the January-October period, FDI in the China’s services sector went up by 6.6 percent year-on-year to US$53.12 billion, whereas the inflows to the manufacturing sector went down by 15.1 percent to US$32.52 billion.

Meanwhile, the ministry also said that China’s outbound investment jumped by 17.8 percent year-on-year to US$81.88 billion in the first 10 months of 2014.