- France: basing itself on the latest Unctad estimates (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the French daily Les Echos says that France attracted close to 47.7 bn euro in investments in 2000, returning it to the word's number four country for inward investments, position that Sweden had taken from it the previous year. The good results achieved by France owe much to the United Kingdom, which, in 2000, became the country's foremost foreign investor with close to 43% of the total, way ahead of the Netherlands (31%), the United States (11%) and Germany (5%). French investments abroad were also sizeable, having almost doubled on 1999 to reach 140.3 bn euro last year. Nearly half this amount may be attributed to the telecommunications sector, whereas the rest is spread over three sectors: consultancy activities, media and aeronautics. The Directorate for External Economic Relations (DREE) of Bercy is less hopeful for 2001, predicting in its report on the general trends in world investments a "possible end to this exceptional wave, especially in view of stock market instability and signs of an economic downturn that appeared in the autumn of 2000.