China is expected to have attracted a record high US$126 billion in inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in non-finance sectors during 2015, the country’s Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

In a statement recapping its work during the year, the Ministry said the services sector had become “a major area for growth” in FDI compared with the manufacturing industry.

The Ministry is to release a confirmed, full-year figure for inward FDI later this month. If the full-year forecast of 2015 is fulfilled, it would represent a hike of at least 5.35 percent from the more than US$119.6 billion in inward FDI achieved in 2014.

In 2014 such investment in China grew 1.7 percent year-on-year, the slowest pace since 2012.

In the first 11 months of 2015, China attracted US$114 billion in FDI, increasing by 7.9 percent from a year earlier.