China's direct investment in the United States will continue to grow rapidly－and any interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve will likely have a limited impact on future Chinese investment, a senior trade official said on Thursday.
The statement came ahead of President Xi Jinping's four-day state visit to the U.S. starting next Tuesday.
Total Chinese investment in the U.S. was $4.43 billion in the first eight months of this year, up by 35.9 percent from the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
"Investment by Chinese companies in the U.S. has been driven by their long-term development strategies," said Zhang Xiangchen, deputy negotiation representative for international trade at the Ministry of Commerce.
"They will certainly take into consideration the U.S. interest rate policy, but they are more focused on the broader global trend to adjust their business and seek investment opportunities," he said.
China has become a net capital exporter to the U.S., which was the third-largest investment destination for Chinese mainland companies after Hong Kong and Australia.
Chinese companies made a record investment of $7.6 billion in the U.S. last year, nearly double that invested the previous year. They also completed 93 mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. with a total transaction value of $7.6 billion, according to a government report on China's ODI released on Thursday.
China's ODI growth last year continued to be strong, at 14.2 percent, to reach $123.12 billion despite the uncertainties in the recovery of the global economy and the growing pressure of the slowing domestic economy, the report showed.
Xu Hongcai, director of the economic research department of the China International Economic Exchange Center, said that the rising overseas spending of Chinese consumers and higher investment capability of Chinese companies will drive more capital out of the country.
"Capital may continue to flow out of China against the backdrop of the Fed's (expected) rate hike and the anticipation for a weaker yuan. But we need not read too much into it as a large amount of two-way capital flows will become normal for China in the future," Xu said.
Sectors like leasing, business services, finance, mining and wholesale and retail trade received the most Chinese investment, accounting for 77.8 percent of the total investment.
Key takeways from 2014 ODI report
· Outbound mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector declined sharply by 47.7 percent to $17.91 billion in value from the previous year's $34.23 billion, which officials blamed on the global commodity market downturn.
· 74.7 percent of State-owned enterprises reported profit or managed to balance their outbound investment activities while 25.6 percent reported losses.
· Outbound investment by local companies surged by 50.3 percent to $54.7 billion, surpassing the total non-financial investment made by centrally administrated State-owned enterprises for the first time.
· Companies investing overseas paid total tax and duties of $19.15 billion to their host countries. Their investments created 833,000 jobs, of which 135,000 were in developed countries.
