China's Q1 overseas investment surges 95 pct

China's non-financial overseas direct investment (ODI) surged 94.5 percent year on year to 16.55 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of this year, the Ministry of Commerce announced (MOC) Tuesday.

Of the total, 6.2 billion U.S. dollars of investment took the form of mergers and acquisitions, said MOC spokesman Shen Danyang.

The ODI marked a substantial increase in March, as investment in the first two months of this year stood at just 7.435 billion U.S. dollars.

First quarter investments were made in 1,096 overseas companies in 109 countries and regions around the world, according to Shen.

As of the end of March, China's non-financial ODI expanded to 338.5 billion U.S. dollars, Shen said.