China outbound investment leaps to record high in Dec
for the destination of Chinese overseas investment, though previous analyses have concluded that China's overseas investment is spread fairly evenly around the globe. MOFCOM's spokesman said on Thursday that investment to Russia, the United States, and Japan had grown the fastest in 2012. BIG DEALS
Monthly FDI and OFDI data is typically volatile, and it was unclear what accounted for the big jump in December. It is also common for MOFCOM to record deals for their statistics weeks or months after the deal is announced.
Chinese state oil major CNOOC's $17.7 billion purchase of Canadian oil and gas producer Nexen Inc was the largest deal signed this year, according to the Thomson One deals database, but the acqisition is still pending approval by U.S. regulators .
The second-biggest deal in 2012, also announced in December, was the purchase by a consortium of Chinese investors led by New China Trust Co Ltd of International Lease Finance Corp from American International Group.
Part of the surge in OFDI was also likely to have reflected efforts by firms or wealthy individuals to evade China's capital controls.
China's closed capital account mean that Chinese residents are restricted from transferring money overseas if they want to buy financial assets, property, or make direct corporate investments not approved by MOFCOM.
A Reuters analysis showed that hot money outflows accelerated in the second half of 2012.
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