China’s non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) surged 58.7 percent year-on-year to 580.28 billion yuan (US$86.7 billion) in the first half of 2016, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported this week.

The ODI jumped 44.9 percent from the previous year to 100.17 billion yuan in June alone, the report quoted the Chinese Ministry of Commerce as saying.

Shen Danyang, a spokesperson of the Ministry, said the investment structure of China was improving, with a surging flow of capital into the manufacturing sector.

In the first half of 2016, flows of Chinese capital worth approximately US$17.59 billion went to the manufacturing sector, up by 245.6 percent from a year earlier, Xinhua reported.