Flood of foreign investment into USA - According to statistics compiled by the Thomson Financial agency, acquisitions of US companies or equity investments by foreign groups, reached a record amount last year of $414.2bn. The 2000 record of $364bn was beaten but the acceleration was very sharp with a 90% rise in buyouts of US companies by other countries. Shares owned by foreign investors in mergers and acquisitions also reached new heights. Therefore, last year they grew to more than a quarter of transactions (27.71%) as opposed to 15% over the past four years. At the beginning of 2008, it appears that this trend could continue to increase. Since the beginning of January, Thomson Fin recorded a value of 44 billion, 24 billion of which was generated by foreign investors. In less than a month, the volume of transactions had already reached 50% of transactions recorded between 2002-03. The general success in US shares can mainly be explained by last year's fall in the value of the dollar compared to the value of the Euro and the sharp fall in share prices (-50% for certain banks for example), which means that a plethora of historically cheap products are now available in what still remains the world's largest market. Thomsom Financial affirmed that as well as the fall in share prices, there was also the cumulative effect: the Chinese and oil exporting countries accumulated mountains of currencies that they sought to invest. Canada is the biggest investor ($65.6bn worth of transactions, overtaking the United Kingdom ($45.8bn, $77.1bn in 200) and Australia ($30.1bn). Two Arab countries can be glimpsed among the top ten: the United Arab Emirates, in 6th place with $17.7bn and Saudi Arabia in 7th place with $12.7bn. Three European countries remain well-placed despite a significant decline in their investments (Germany in joint 5th place with Spain, with $24.2bn as opposed to $47bn in 2000; the Netherlands in 10th place with $10.8bn; France in 11th place with 10.5bn as opposed to 28.3bn in 2000). From Asia: South Korea and China which only began to invest in the US in 2000 are now in 12th and 14th place respectively with $10.4 and $9.8bn. Singapore proved shy in 2000 ($1.4bn) but is now in 13th place with $9.9bn.