BEIJING: China's overseas investment almost doubled year-on-year to $9.79 billion in September, the government said Thursday, again exceeding incoming funds even though they recovered from multi-year lows.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) -- which excludes financial sectors -- into China came in at $9.01 billion for the month, the commerce ministry said, up only 1.9 percent year-on-year but a significant improvement on August's $7.20 billion, the lowest since July 2010.

China has been actively acquiring foreign assets, particularly energy and resources, to power its economy, with firms encouraged to "go out" and make overseas acquisitions to gain market access and international experience.

Overseas direct investment (ODI) was up 90.5 percent in September, and officials have said it could exceed FDI this year.

For the first nine months total ODI stood at $74.96 billion, up 21.6 percent, with FDI at $87.36 billion, down 1.4 percent.

Over the period, Chinese investment into the European Union soared 218 percent to $9.0 billion, the ministry said.