For more on China’s outbound investment, let me bring in my colleague Zhao Lingfeng.

Q1. So almost US$90 billion have poured into overseas assets by Chinese companies… Can you tell us more what that number means, and more importantly where is the money going? 

A1. Yes, sure. First up, let’s take a look at growth. As we’ve just mentioned, Chinese companies have spent about US$90 billion on non-financial investments overseas… That’s an increase of nearly 60 percent compared to last year… Growth in the second quarter has kept up with what we had seen in Q1, where there was a 55 percent jump in growth… In terms of where the Chinese money is going, local companies have continued to invest in North America, affluent Asian neighbors and European countries… Also notably, from January to May, Chinese firms invested over US$5 billion into 49 countries involved in the Belt and Road initiative -- about 16 percent more than last year... That kind of change is worth watching as China pushes forward with its bold Belt and Road scheme… And what sectors are getting the biggest slices of the pie? Investment into business services accounted for a quarter of all of the money invested overseas… Following that was manufacturing, making up about 20 percent the total… what’s notable in this category is that US$12 billion were invested specifically on equipment manufacturing… that’s five times more than last year’s number… Wholesale and retail, took the number three spot, accounting for 16 percent of total investments, and mining came in fourth, with about 5 percent. … Overall, very fast growth.

Q2. What else did you learn about ODI growth in the first half? What is driving the growth?

A2. An overseas buying spree by Chinese companies is a big factor in growing outbound investment… China is leading the globe in cross-border merger and acquisitions for the first time on record … 97 deals were sealed with a total worth of over US$40 billion in the second quarter of this year alone -- up 130 percent from last year… In terms of top deals, we definitely can't forget China National Chemical Corp’s US$48 billion take-over of Swiss agri-business giant, Syngenta. This was by far China’s biggest outbound M&A deal on record. There were also some other remarkable deals… like Chinese appliance maker Haier's takeover of GE's appliance unit, Midea's deal with German robotics firm Kuka, and Wanda group's acquisition of Legendary Pictures… In general, Chinese companies targeted assets in Europe and North America, particularly their automotive, real estate and hospitality, financial services, and information technology sectors… Experts are saying Chinese firms will keep up this momentum of overseas deal-making as the country continues to transform itself into a consumer based economy.