Eurostat News Release: Foreign Direct Investment stocks at the end of 2013 – EU was a net investor in the rest of the world, The United States, by far the main partner of the EU, 11 Φεβρουαρίου.
Data on FDI stocks help to quantify the impact of globalisation and provide a measurement of longstanding economic links between countries. They measure the accumulated value of all FDI carried out in the past.
At the end of 2013, the European Union (EU) held Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stocks of €4 900 billion in the rest of the world, while stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU amounted to €3 778 bn, meaning that the EU held a net investment position vis-à-vis the rest of the world.
Special purpose entities (SPEs) resident in the EU played a significant role in both outward and inward FDI. At the end of 2013, they accounted for 55% of the FDI stocks held by the EU abroad and for 70% of the FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU.
These data, issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, are compiled for the first time according to the new methodology of foreign direct investment statistics. They are subject to revision.
A third of EU FDI stocks held in the USA
North America, and in particular the United States, represented the main partner of the EU for FDI. At the end of 2013, the United States (€1 686 bn or 34% of total stocks held by the EU in the rest of the world) was the leading location of EU FDI stocks, followed by Switzerland (€667 bn or 14%), Brazil (€272 bn or 6%) and Canada (€225 bn or 5%). The United States was also by far the main investor in the EU (€1 652 bn or 44% of total FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU), ahead of Switzerland (€431 bn or 11%). Together, these two countries accounted for more than half of FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU at the end of 2013.
