China's outbound investment up 21.6 pct

Chinese companies posted a year-on-year growth of 21.6 percent in their investment overseas during the first nine months of the year, accelerating from the 15.3-percent rise recorded in the January-August period, official data showed Thursday.

China's outbound direct investment (ODI) by non-financial firms reached 74.96 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine month, up 21.6 percent from one year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce said.

In September alone, the ODI surged 90.5 percent from one year earlier to 9.79 billion U.S. dollars.