BEIJING, March 27 -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) surged 35.7 percent year on year to 136.04 billion yuan in the first two months of the year, official data showed Monday.

In U.S. dollar terms, the ODI stood at 19.96 billion U.S. dollars in the January-February period, a rapid increase of 26.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In the first two months of 2023, outbound investment channeled into leasing and business services rose 22.3 percent from a year ago to 4.72 billion U.S. dollars, while that into wholesale and retail came in at 4.09 billion U.S. dollars, logging a yearly increase of 17.2 percent.

Sectors such as manufacturing and construction also registered growth in outbound investment.

During the same period, the non-financial ODI in countries along the Belt and Road jumped 27.8 percent year on year to 4.04 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 20.2 percent of the total ODI.