China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) in January was 18.2 percent higher than in January 2015, Ministry of Commerce (MOC) data showed on Tuesday.

Some 12.02 billion U.S. dollars of ODI came out from China last month, the MOC said in a statement.

The year-on-year increase accelerated from a 6.1-percent rise in December and was also faster than the annual growth of 14.7 percent in 2015.

The MOC attributed the growth largely to investment in the manufacturing sector, which soared nearly 90 percent year on year to 1.62 billion dollars in January.

Chinese local enterprises contributed 92.5 percent of the total ODI in January, up from a share of 66.4 percent in 2015, with their outbound investment surging 175 percent year on year.

Big overseas mergers and acquisitions boosted the ODI growth. For example, hydropower giant China Three Gorges last month paid about 3.7 billion dollars for the rights to operate two hydropower plants in Brazil for 30 years.

The United States was one of the most popular investment destinations for Chinese companies, whose ODI in the country nearly quadrupled from a year earlier to 1.6 billion dollars in January.

Investment in the United States is expected to maintain fast growth this year, the MOC said.

China's outbound investment ranks as the world's third biggest in flow and and the eighth in terms of stock. Endi

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