BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) dipped 0.4 percent year on year in 2020, official data showed Thursday.
The ODI stood at 110.15 billion U.S. dollars (about 759.77 billion yuan) last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The contract value of newly signed overseas engineering projects came in at about 255.54 billion dollars last year, down 1.8 percent year on year.
Total non-financial ODI made by Chinese firms in 58 countries along the Belt and Road reached 17.79 billion dollars, up 18.3 percent year on year. The figure accounted for 16.2 percent of the country's total during the period, up 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier.
Outbound investment mainly flowed to sectors including leasing and business services, as well as wholesale and retail industries, the ministry said.
The ODI flowing to leasing and business services rose 17.5 percent year on year to 41.79 billion dollars, while that flowing to the wholesale and retail sectors amounted to 16.07 billion dollars, increasing 27.8 percent year on year.
In 2020, the non-financial ODI made by local companies reached 80.75 billion dollars, up 16.4 percent year on year, the data showed.