UN World Investment Report 2010 - Office of Trade Negotiations

CHAPTER II Regional Trends in FDI 31
This chapter analyses regional trends in
FDI, with some additions to the coverage
and changes in presentation as compared
to previous World Investment Reports. It
first focuses on the traditional regions (four
developing-country regions, South-East
Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS), and developed countries).
Then it goes on to discuss FDI in special
groups of economies with similar common
geographical or organizational features, such
as structurally weak, vulnerable and small
FDI flows to developed countries experienced
the largest decline (44 per cent) in
2009 among all regions and subregions.
Among the developing economies – which
as a whole registered a 24 per cent fall in
inflows – South, East and South-East Asia
showed the smallest decline (17 per cent) and
remained the largest recipient, accounting
for almost half of the total inflows. Africa
recorded a decrease of 19 per cent in 2009.
In terms of the decline rate, flows to Latin
America and the Caribbean and West Asia
fell more. However, all developing regions
saw their shares rise in global FDI inflows
(table II.1). This is not the case for transition
economies of South-East Europe and the
A. Regional trends
Table II.1. FDI flows, by region, 2007–2009
(Billions of dollars and per cent)
economies (LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS). The
analysis in each subregion begins with a
presentation of facts and figures in graphs
and tables. Then, salient developments and
issues with respect to regional FDI trends
are highlighted. Finally, for each of the traditional
major regions – and LDCs, LLDCs
and SIDS – a topic of particular relevance
is discussed with the aim of drawing attention
to an important FDI-related issue for
the region.
Region
FDI inflows
2007 2008 2009
FDI outflows
2007 2008 2009
World 2 100 1 771 1 114 2 268 1 929 1 101
Developed economies 1 444 1 018 566 1 924 1 572 821
Developing economies 565 630 478 292 296 229
Africa 63 72 59 11 10 5
Latin America and the Caribbean 164 183 117 56 82 47
West Asia 78 90 68 47 38 23
South, East and South-East Asia 259 282 233 178 166 153
South-East Europe and the CIS 91 123 70 52 61 51
Memorandum: percentage share in world FDI flows
Developed economies 68.8 57.5 50.8 84.8 81.5 74.5
Developing economies 26.9 35.6 42.9 12.9 15.4 20.8
Africa 3.0 4.1 5.3 0.5 0.5 0.5
Latin America and the Caribbean 7.8 10.3 10.5 2.5 4.3 4.3
West Asia 3.7 5.1 6.1 2.1 2.0 2.1
South, East and South-East Asia 12.3 15.9 20.9 7.9 8.6 13.9
South-East Europe and CIS 4.3 6.9 6.3 2.3 3.1 4.6
Source: UNCTAD, FDI/TNC database (www.unctad-org/fdistatistics).
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
which suffered a decline of 43 per cent.
FDI outflows in 2009 showed a similar pattern
to inflows: they decreased in all regions
and subregions. FDI outflows from developed
country TNCs were almost halved in 2009
(table II.1). The share of developing countries
in global FDI outflows rose to 21 per
cent, while those of transition economies,
although small, maintained their upward
trend to 5 per cent (table II.1). Within the
developing countries, outflows from South,
East and South-East Asia have been particularly
noteworthy, accounting for 14 per cent
of global outflows in 2009.