Investments signal rise of multinationals

The direction of the financial tides flowing in and out of China's shores has been changing. The perception that China is primarily attractive as an inbound investment center is now being outpaced by Chinese money heading across the world to acquire assets.

In 2015, China's non-financial outward direct investment (ODI) was $118 billion. Based on the Ministry of Commerce's 2015 data for foreign direct investment (FDI), which stood at $128.5 billion and the non-financial ODI of $118 billion, one can therefore assume China's total ODI (financial and non-financial) actually exceeded FDI for the first time in 2015. This represents a significant shift.

UBS expects China's ODI to accelerate to an 18 percent compound annual growth rate from 2015 to 2018, having recorded on average at 14 percent during 2008-14.