Mexico City - Foreign direct investment in Mexico skyrocketed by 19.6% in the first quarter, to reach a record $9.5 billion US dollars for the period, the Ministry of Economy announced Monday.

In a statement, the ministry said the FDI for Q1 2018 had beaten 2017's 7.946 billion U.S. dollars, according to preliminary numbers.

"The FDI amount for the first quarter of 2018 is the highest preliminary number for an equivalent period in the history of the indicator," it wrote.

Between January and March, Mexico saw 11.48 billion U.S. dollars of new investments flowing in and a drop of 1.978 billion U.S. dollars from existing investments.

The FDI also came in from a broad base of 1,553 companies with foreign capital.

The U.S. was the source of most of this investment with 43.6 percent, 18.6 percent came from Spain, 8.6 percent came from Canada, 5.9 percent from Australia and 5.1 percent from the Netherlands.

The manufacturing sector was the main beneficiary with 35.2 percent, financial services received 29.8 percent of FDI, mining took 7.1 percent, trade 6.9 percent, and construction 6 percent.

Under the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico has received FDI worth a combined 181.793 billion U.S. dollars since December 2012, 15.4 percent higher than his government's target for its full term.

Mexico will be buoyed that FDI has remained high, despite its renegotiation of NAFTA with the United States and Canada since August.

The country is the second biggest destination for FDI in Latin America, after Brazil.