FDI projects to the Republic up 24% over the last three years

The number of greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) projects into the Republic grew 8 per cent last year, alongside a 32 per cent increase in capital investment to $10.5 billion (€9.37 billion), according to a new report.

The study from FDI Intelligence, a publication from the Financial Times, shows FDI into the Republic jumped by 24 per cent between 2015 to 2018. Last year there were 219 FDI projects reported locally, as against 202 in 2017, 188 in 2016 and 177 in 2015.

The performance of the Republic comes as the overall number of FDI projects into Europe fell by 2 per cent last year as capital investment jumped 30 per ent to $216.2 billion.

The UK was the top destination for FDI in Europe with a total of 1278 projects last year. It was followed by France, Germany, Spain and Poland.

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Greenfield capital investment

Globally, greenfield capital investment increased by 42 per cent to $662.6 billion last year, while the number of FDI projects increasing by 7 per cent to 14,845. Related job creation jumped 25 per cent to 2.3 million.

China replaced the US as the highest ranked country for FDI by capital investment, with $107.2 billion recorded, boosted by major announcements from the likes of Foxconn and BASF. The US was the highest ranked country globally for FDI by number of projects, recording 1,581 announcements versus 796 for China.

Western Europe was the leading source region for FDI with 6,524 projects recorded. This is equivalent to 44 per cent of all FDI globally and accounts for $305.9 billion in capital investment.

Emerging nations performed well in terms of FDI last year with capital investment to India jumping 120 per cent to $54.3 billion. Brazil and Argentina recorded a 77 per cent and 78 per cent jump in projects respectively.