Chinese outbound direct investment continues rapid growth

China's direct investment in the United States will continue to grow rapidly and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy will have limited impact on future Chinese investment, a senior trade official said on Thursday.

In the first eight months of this year, total Chinese investment in the US stood at $4.43 billion, a year-on-year increase of 35.9 percent. Chinese companies completed 93 mergers and acquisition deals in the US last year with total value of $7.6 billion, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

"Investment by Chinese companies in the US is driven by their long-term development strategies. They will take into consideration the interest rate policy but they are more focused on the broader global trend to adjust their business," Zhang Xiangchen, deputy negotiation representative for international trade at the Ministry of Commerce said at a news conference.

China's total outbound direct investment continued to see strong growth last year despite the uncertainties in the recovery of the global economy and the growing pressure of the slowing domestic economy.

Total value of China's ODI stood at $123.12 billion last year, up by 14.2 percent from the previous year, according to an investment report released by the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

Sectors of leasing, business services, finance, mining and wholesale and retail trade received the most investment from China, accounting for 77.8 percent of the total investment, the report said.