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Dear Colleagues, It is my pleasure to share with you the latest issue of UNCTAD's Global Investment Trends Monitor which covers the latest trends of investment flows through offshore financial hubs. The key message: Investment flows through offshore financial hubs declined but remain at high level In 2015, the volatility of investment flows to offshore financial hubs – including those to offshore financial centers and special purpose entities (SPEs) – rose significantly. These flows, which are excluded from UNCTAD’s FDI statistics, declined but remain sizable. Financial flows through SPEs surged in volume during 2015. The magnitude of quarterly flows through SPEs, in terms of absolute value, rose sharply compared with 2014, reaching the levels registered in 2012-2013. Pronounced volatility, with flows swinging from large-scale net investment in the first three quarters to drastic net divestment in the last quarter, tempered the annual result, which dipped to US$221 billion. Investment flows to offshore financial centers continued to retreat from its recent high of US$132 billion in 2013, but remained roughly in line with the flows of previous years. Investment to these jurisdictions, which hit an estimated US$72 billion in 2015, had risen in recent years by the growing flows from multinational enterprises (MNEs) located in developing and transition economies, sometimes in the form of investment round-tripping. The proportion of investment income booked in low tax, often offshore, jurisdictions is high – and possibly growing – despite the slowdown in offshore financial flows. The disconnect between the locations of income generation and productive investment results in substantial fiscal losses, and is therefore a key concern for policy makers. The persistence of financial flows routed through offshore financial mechanisms highlights the pressing need to create greater coherence among tax and investment policies at the global level. The international investment and tax policy regimes are both the object of separate reforms. Better managing their interaction would not only help to avoid conflict between the regimes but would also make them mutually supporting, with positive implications for productive cross-border investment. In the World Investment Report 2015, UNCTAD proposed a set of guidelines for coherent international tax and investment policies that could help realize the synergies between investment policy and initiatives to counter tax avoidance. For the latest FDI trends please see UNCTAD's Global Investment Trends Monitor issued in January 2016 . An in-depth analysis of FDI trends will feature in the forthcoming World Investment Report 2016, to be published in 21 June 2016. James Zhan Director, Investment and Enterprise Team Leader, World Investment Report UNCTAD Palais des Nations, Geneva Tel: +41 22 917 5797 www.unctad.org/diae www.unctad.org/wir (World Investment Reports) http://unctad-worldinvestmentforum.org/