BEIJING, March 16 (Reuters) - China drew $8.56 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in February, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, while outbound Chinese investment excluding the financial sector surged by 68.2 percent to $7.25 billion, the Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday.

FDI into China grew at its strongest pace in nearly four years in January, surging 29.4 percent from a year earlier to $13.9 billion as investors largely shunned the manufacturing sector and focused on the more resilient services industry.

For January and February combined, inbound FDI rose 17.0 percent from a year earlier, to $22.5 billion. Due to distortions caused by the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday this year as compared to last year, economists say the combined figure gives a clearer picture of investment flows than February alone.

Outbound investment for January and February combined rose 51.0 percent to $17.4 billion.

FDI inflows into China rose an annual 1.7 percent in 2014 to $119.6 billion, the slowest pace in two years.

China's foreign direct investment (in $bln)

_2015 __________________________2014___________________________ Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sept Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb 8.6 13.9 13.3 10.4 8.5 9.0 7.2 7.8 14.4 8.6 8.7 12.2 8.5 (Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Jason Subler)