Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to share with you the latest issue of our
Global Investment Trends Monitor.
Highlights:
- Global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 41% in the first half of 2018, to an estimated US$470 billion, from US$794 billion in the same period
in 2017.
- The decline in FDI flows is in contrast with trends in cross-border merger and acquisitions (M&As) and announced greenfield investments. M&A sales remained
flat in the first half of 2018 at US$371. Announced greenfield projects – an indicator of future trends – recovered to US$454 billion, an increase of 42%, from relatively low levels in the same period in 2017.
- The decline was largely concentrated in developed countries where FDI inflows fell sharply, by 69% to an estimated US$135 billion. The greenfield investment
recovery largely passed over the developed countries, where the increase was less than 5%.
- FDI
also declined across all developing regions, but
only slightly, to an estimated US$310 billion in the first half of the year, 4% lower than in the first half of 2017. The share of developing economies in global FDI reached 66%, a record.
The FDI trends for the first half of 2018 risk bringing global investment down to its lowest level for more than a decade, driven more by policy factors than by the economic cycle. How to build
and maintain a global policy climate that is conducive to investment in sustainable development will be discussed by policymakers from around the world at next week’s
World Investment Forum, from 22-26 October at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Best regards,
James X. Zhan
Director,
Investment and Enterprise
Lead, World Investment Report
United Nations Conference on Trade & Development
Palais des Nations, Geneva
http://www.unctad.org/wir
http://www.worldinvestmentforum.org
http://investmentpolicyhub.unctad.org