VIRGINIA, Oct 11 (INP) China is close to matching the United States as a source of official grants and loans to developing countries, a multinational group of researchers reported on Wednesday. The research by AidData, a lab at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, is the most extensive effort yet to measure official financing by China. China gave or lent $354.4 billion in the 15 years ending in 2014 in Africa, Asia and elsewhere, compared with $394.6 billion for the US, according to AidData. It released a database of Chinese financing, assembled from thousands of sources of information, and a study on its impact by scholars from Harvard University, Germany's Heidelberg University and William & Mary. “At the very top level, you could say the US and China are now spending rivals when it comes to their financial transfers to other countries,” said AidData's executive director, Bradley C. Parks. Attention to Chinese financing has increased as Beijing promotes its “Belt and Road Initiative”, a multibillion-dollar initiative to expand China's trade links with Asia, Africa and the Middle East by building ports, roads and other facilities. INP/AH/LK