Big decline in investment flows in and out of EU

Following the economic crisis, EU FDI (foreign direct investment) in the rest of the world declined significantly in 2010, falling by 62 percent, from 281 billion euro in 2009 to 107 billion in 2010. For the same period FDI into the 27-member EU from the rest of the world dropped by 75 percent, from 216 billion to 54 billion.These figures were published Monday by Eurostat, the EU statistical office. The strong fall in EU investments in the rest of the world in 2010 is explained by the significant declines recorded with the Offshore financial centres (from 89 bn euro in 2009 to 21 bn in 2010), the USA (from 79 bn to 12 bn) and Switzerland (from 44 bn to disinvestment of 7 bn), noted Eurostat. The US was the main source of investment in the EU, although down strongly from 97 billion euro in 2009 to 28 billion in 2010. Investments in the EU also decreased significantly from Switzerland (from 25 bn to 6 bn) and Offshore financial centres (from 46 bn to a disinvestment of 4 bn). However, investments in the EU increased from Canada (from 12 bn to 28 bn), Hong Kong (from 1 bn to 11 bn) and Brazil (from 0.4 bn to 4 bn), and to a lesser extent from Japan and China. Luxembourg, with outflows of 38 bn euro, was the largest investor outside the EU in 2010, followed by Belgium (36 bn), Germany (29 bn) and France (23 bn). Luxembourg (48 bn) was also the main recipient of FDI inflows from outside the EU, ahead of the United Kingdom (28 bn), Ireland (21 bn) and Germany (14 bn). The role of Luxembourg in EU FDI is mainly explained by the importance of its financial and banking activity. Eurostat explained that Offoshore Financial Centres (OFC) is an aggregate used in FDI data which includes 38 countries. As examples, the aggregate contains European financial centres, such as Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, the Faroe Islands, Andorra and Gibraltar; Central American OFC such as Panama and Caribbean islands like Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands; and Asian OFC such as Bahrain, Hong Kong, Singapore and Philippines.