Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland fell 1 percent year on year to 8.9 billion U.S. dollars in May, the Ministry of Commerce said Sunday.

This compared with a 6 percent increase registered in April.

For the first five months, FDI, which excludes investment in the financial sector, rose 3.8 percent year on year to 54.2 billion dollars, with the growth decelerating from the 4.8 percent registered in the January-April period, the ministry said.

The service sector attracted 38.2 billion dollars of FDI in the five months, 70.4 percent of the total and 7 percent higher than the same period last year.

FDI into the manufacturing sector declined 3.2 percent during the period to 15.5 billion dollars, accounting for 28.8 percent of the total.

Among the ten major investors, FDI from the United States surged 140.2 percent year on year in the first five months while that from Britain soared 110 percent.

Investment from countries relating to the Belt and Road Initiative was up 1.3 percent to 3.1 billion dollars during the period.

• [Editor:penny]