China's foreign direct investment (FDI) jumped surprisingly in June, growing 20.12 percent from a year earlier to $14.39 billion, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced on July 17.

The June FDI data did not include overseas fund influxes in banking, securities and insurance sectors but still marked a significant upsurge from a 0.29-percent year-on-year increase seen in May.

The figure marked the fifth consecutive monthly increase since February, when China reported an FDI recovery after seeing monthly declines since June 2012.

"But we cannot conclude that China's FDI has rebounded simply by looking at just a single month's data. We expect the FDI in the second half to grow steadily," MOFCOM spokesman Shen Danyang said at a press conference.

During the first half of the year, China approved the establishment of 10,630 foreign-invested enterprises, down 9.18 percent from a year earlier. FDI totaled $61.98 billion, up 4.9 percent year on year.

Nearly half of the FDI in the January-June period went to the service sector, Shen said.

FDI from the EU and the United States jumped 14.68 percent and 12.29 percent, respectively, to $4.04 billion and $1.83 billion in the first half.

China's western regions saw strong growth in FDI, with an increase of 32.54 percent, compared with a 15.75-percent gain for central regions and a 1.69-percent gain for the east.