Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China accelerated by 32.2 percent year on year to 7.8 billion U.S. dollars in February, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday.

The February FDI inflow was less than January's 10.03 billion U.S. dollars and the number of newly-approved foreign-funded companies also fell in the month due to a week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, MOC said in a brief statement on its website.

Compared with 2,243 new foreign-funded enterprises in January, only 1,156 new foreign-invested enterprises were approved in February, down 10.9 percent from the same period of last year.

The FDI into China increased 17.4 percent year on year to 105.74 billion U.S. dollars last year.