Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China grew at the slowest rate in nearly a year, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said, adding however that growth was coming off an existing high base.

The Ministry announced on Tuesday that the nation attracted 89.57 billion yuan (US14.58 billion) in FDI during June, an increase of 0.7 percent year-on-year. It was the slowest expansion since August 2014.

Shen Danyang, the Ministry’s spokesman, explained in a press conference that the slower growth was due to a high base of comparison from last year. But he nonetheless highlighted the healthy expansion of FDI in China’s services sector.

“The scale of China’s service industry and service economy is enormous and there are increasing business opportunities; precisely the trend foreign firms have noticed,” he said.

In the first six months of this year, the amount of FDI in the Chinese services sector rose 23.6 percent year-on-year to US$43.4 billion, accounting for 63.5 percent of total FDI. China’s total FDI jumped 8.3 percent year-on-year to US$68.4 billion in the first half.

But the manufacturing sector only drew US$20.86 billion in FDI in the first six months, down by 8.4 percent from the previous year.

The Ministry also announced on Tuesday that China’s outbound direct investment (ODI) in non-financial areas surged 29.2 percent year-on-year to US$56 billion in the January-June period.