BEIJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) went down 5.2 percent year on year to 522.76 billion yuan in the first nine months of this year, official data showed Thursday.

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 24, 2020 shows containers at Dalian port in northeast China's Liaoning Province. (Photo: Xinhua/ Yao Jianfeng)

In U.S. dollar terms, China's non-financial ODI rose 2.4 percent to 80.78 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In the January-September period, investment into countries along the Belt and Road increased 14.2 percent year on year to 14.87 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 18.4 percent of total non-financial ODI, the data showed.

Outbound investment in multiple fields continued to grow during the period. Investment into the manufacturing sector rose 9.3 percent from a year earlier to 13.66 billion U.S. dollars, while investment into services related to information transmission, software and information technology jumped 37.2 percent to reach 6.2 billion U.S. dollars.

The non-financial ODI from China's local enterprises increased 8.5 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 76.6 percent of the total non-financial ODI during the period, according to the ministry.