BEIJING - Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland fell 6.7 percent year on year to $8.6 billion in May, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

In the first five months of 2014, the FDI, which excludes investment in the financial sector, came in at $48.9 billion, up 2.8 percent from the same period last year, the ministry said.

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During the same period, FDI into China's service sector rose 19.5 percent year on year to $27.5 billion, accounting for 56.2 percent of the total, while that to the manufacturing sector dropped 16.5 percent to $17.4 billion.

In January-May, the top five investors in the Chinese mainland were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Japan. Investment from the ROK and the United Kingdom saw the biggest rises, up 87.9 percent and 62.2 percent year on year, respectively.

However, FDI from Japan slumped 42.2 percent from a year ago, while that from the United States fell 9.3 percent year on year. Investment from the European Union shed 22.1 percent in the first five months to $2.58 billion.

Investment from the ASEAN dropped 22.3 percent to $2.54 billion, but MOC spokesman Shen Danyang denied it was affected by tensions with neighboring countries.

Shen attributed the drop to a high comparative base last year resulting from big projects and said the decline did not represent any trend.

"Our economic and trade cooperation with the ASEAN is not affected by current factors in the neighboring areas," he said, adding that economic cooperation between the two sides will maintain growth momentum.