The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) that flowed into China in July rose 29.2 percent year on year to 6.924 billion U.S. dollars, a Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesman said Tuesday.

The figure brought FDI inflow to China in the first seven months of the year to 58.35 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 20.65 percent from a year earlier, ministry spokesman Yao Jian said.

Yao said on a month-on-month basis, FDI inflow had increased by more than 20 percent for two straight months, reflecting the solid recovery in FDI flows into China.

The manufacturing sector received 47.94 percent of the July FDI inflow and the services industry got 45.09 percent.

A total of 14,459 foreign-invested companies were approved for establishment in China during the first seven months of the year, up 17.9 percent year on year.

On the other hand, during the first seven months of the year, Chinese entities invested 26.75 billion U.S. dollars in overseas markets, excluding financial investment, bringing total outbound investment by the end of July to 226.5 billion U.S. dollars, the MOC data showed without giving year-on-year comparisons.

China's Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, Sweden, Canada, Australia, the United States and Brazil were the main overseas destinations of Chinese FDI.

Some 22.8 percent of FDI outflows, or 6.1 billion U.S. dollars, were for the acquisition of overseas companies.