EIJING, Nov. 17 -- China's outbound direct investment (ODI) increased in the first ten months of the year, with strong growth in the United States, official data showed Thursday.

Non-financial ODI increased 53.3 percent year on year to reach 145.96 billion U.S. dollars in the January-October period, while ODI in October grew 48.4 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In the first ten months, outbound investment from the Chinese mainland mostly went to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, ASEAN, the European Union, Australia, the United States, Russia and Japan. The United States received the strongest year-on-year increase, at 173.9 percent.

Most of the investment went to commercial services, manufacturing and retail, with equipment manufacturing almost quadrupling from last year.

Chinese companies continued to invest heavily in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, signing construction contracts worth over 84 billion U.S. dollars during the period, up 30.7 percent year on year.