China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) increased 18.7 percent year on year to 673.14 billion yuan in the first nine months of the year, official data showed Thursday.

In U.S. dollar terms, the ODI stood at 95.96 billion U.S. dollars in the period, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The non-financial ODI in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative came in at 164.71 billion U.S. dollars during the January-September period, up 27.7 percent year on year.

The turnover of contracted projects overseas grew 8.2 percent year on year to 764.82 billion yuan, while the contract value of newly-signed projects amounted to 986.28 billion yuan, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said.