China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) increased 24.2 percent year on year to 356.46 billion yuan in the first five months of the year, official data showed Thursday.

In U.S. dollar terms, the ODI stood at 51.78 billion U.S. dollars in the period, up 16.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The non-financial ODI in countries along the Belt and Road came in at 9.16 billion dollars, up 11.8 percent year on year.

The turnover of contracted projects overseas expanded 8 percent year on year to 371.95 billion yuan, while the contract value of newly-signed projects amounted to 493.87 billion yuan, down 2.6 percent from a year earlier.