Foreign direct investment in mainland China was 5.7 percent greater last month than a year earlier, expanding again after the annual contraction of 1.6 percent recorded in July, reports the Chinese government-run news agency Xinhua.

The report says data from China’s Ministry of Commerce indicated FDI was 57.3 billion yuan (US$8.8 billion) last month.

FDI in the first eight months of this year into mainland China was US$85.9 billion, 4.5 percentage points more than the same time last year. Foreign investment in the services sector accounted for 70 percent of the total in the first eight months, a 10-percentage point increase in year-on-year terms.