Crisis has not affected FDI overall in developing countries in 2008. - UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, has just published its annual report on investment trends throughout the world (see Economic Interpenetration N°9051). Here are the trends region by region in 2008: - Developed countries: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows dropped by 29% to $962 billion. In the European Union, FDI flows reached $503 billion, a fall of 40% compared with 2007. This can be explained mainly by the steep decline in flows into the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. With the worsening in the financial crisis, most EU countries recorded further reduction in FDI in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008. In Canada, too, a reduction in international investment in the mining and natural resources industries contributed to a significant fall in inward FDI. FDI inflows to the United States, mainly from European investors, rose by 17% to a record $316 billion. Similarly, flows to Japan maintained their upward trend, reaching $24 billion. FDI outflows from developed countries dropped by 17% compared with 2007, to $1,500 billion. Only Japan, Switzerland, Canada and the Netherlands recorded an increase in their FDI outflows. - Developing countries: in the first quarter of 2009, FDI flows to South-East Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) tumbled by 46% compared with the same period in 2008. This fall comes after the eighth consecutive increase in FDI inflows (+26%) in 2008, reaching a record high of $114 billion. FDI inflows were dominated again by a few countries, with the Russian Federation ($70 billion), Kazakhstan ($15 billion) and Ukraine ($10 billion) absorbing 84% of the year's total investment. Flows from South-East Europe and the CIS also continued to rise, reaching $52 billion. In South, East and South-East Asia, foreign investment has been slowing since the last quarter of 2008. However, earlier momentum in 2008 meant that FDI to the region rose by 17%, reaching a record $298 billion. Trends vary from one country to another: FDI inflows rose in China, hitting an all-time high of $108 billion, making China the third largest FDI recipient, after the United States and France. India, too, broke its record, with $42 billion. FDI flows to the four new industrial countries of Asia varied widely: there was a sharp increase in the Republic of Korea, and in Hong Kong, too, they continued to rise, but, in Singapore and in the Chinese province of Taiwan, they fell. Malaysia and Thailand also saw their FDI flows reduced. Other countries, like Indonesia and Vietnam managed to maintain growth in FDI despite the crisis. FDI outflows in the region rose by 7% to $186 billion. In South and Central America and in the Caribbean, trends diverged widely. FDI rose by 29% in South America, which was only affected much later by the crisis, but fell (-6%) in Central America and the Caribbean. In Central America, the fall was largely due to the steep decrease to Mexico (-20%). In South America, flows increased in Argentina (+37%), Chile (+33%), Brazil (+30%) and Colombia (+17%), these four countries accounting for 89% of the sub-region's total inflows. FDI outflows increased by 22%, to $63 billion. In Africa, FDI inflows reached the record level of $88 billion. This was the sixth consecutive annual increase. A fall is likely in 2009, however. FDI flows tended to be heavily concentrated on a small number of countries, with particularly strong growth in flows to West Africa. Ghana and Guinea saw their flows more than double, far exceeding $1 billion each. In Southern Africa, the increase in inward FDI was almost entirely due to Angola and South Africa. FDI also increased in the countries of Central and Eastern Africa, but much more slowly. In North Africa, a fall in the FDI flow to Egypt, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Morocco was recorded. FDI from African countries, which makes up only 3% of outflows from developing countries, is in decline: -12%, down from $10.6 billion to $9.3 billion. (I.L./transl.rt)