For the past two years the consulting firm AT KEARNEY has published a FDI (foreign direct investment) indicator which anticipates investment projects abroad for the 1000 main multinationals in the world for the next six months. Results of the inquiry carried out in January show that: i) the United States retains its leading place among the preferred FDI destinations despite concern by investors regarding the US' capacity to keep growth at its present level; ii) Western Europe has risen to second place, with the United Kingdom in the lead, dethroning China for the first time which slides into third position; iii) the Latin American countries lose several places, except for Brazil which remains in fourth place because of the reticence felt by businessmen to invest in emergent countries since the Asian crisis; iv) in addition to the United Kingdom, the best-placed European countries are Germany (6th), Italy (8th), Spain (9th), France (12th) and the Netherlands (17th). Belgium and Ireland, which were not in the first category, come 24th and 25th respectively.