CANBERRA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States continues to be the biggest foreign investor in Australia, ploughing more than 666 billion U.S. dollars into the country, comprising 27 percent of the overall figure.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released data on Wednesday which showed the level of foreign investment and the U.S. led Britain (15 percent), Belgium (9 percent) as the top three investors in the country.

Australia shares strong ties with the U.S. and relies heavily on its investment as an economic partner.

Almost 357 billion U.S. dollars came from Britain, rather surprisingly, Belgium had the third largest contribution with 226 billion U.S.dollars.

The level of foreign investment in Australia reached 2.43 trillion U.S. dollars for the year ended Dec. 31 2017, an increase of 3 percent on the previous year.