Non-financial foreign direct investment (FDI) flowing into China grew by 2.7 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2016, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

Such investment was 141.88 billion yuan (US$22.52 billion), it added.

The Ministry did not give a breakdown of FDI in February alone. News agency Reuters reported February’s FDI declined 1.3 percent from the previous year to US$8.45 billion. It said it based the calculations on official figures.

FDI inflows to China’s services sector expanded 5.7 percent year-on-year to 89.16 billion yuan in the combined January and February period, the Ministry said. This accounted for 62.8 percent of total FDI investment for the period, it added.

Investment in the high-tech services sector rose by 157 percent from the previous year to 15.91 billion yuan in the first two months.

Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua also reported the Commerce Minister, Gao Hucheng, as saying on Sunday that the central and western regions in China would be the next frontier for investment from overseas.