(11 February 2015) – At the end of 2013, the European Union held Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stocks of €4 900 billion in the rest of the world, while stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU amounted to €3 778 bn, meaning that the EU held a net investment position vis-à-vis the rest of the world.
Data on FDI stocks help to quantify the impact of globalisation and provide a measurement of longstanding economic links between countries. They measure the accumulated value of all FDI carried out in the past.
North America, and in particular the United States, represented the main partner of the EU for FDI. At the end of 2013, the United States (€1 686 bn or 34% of total stocks held by the EU in the rest of the world) was the leading location of EU FDI stocks, followed by Switzerland (€667 bn or 14%),Brazil (€272 bn or 6%) and Canada (€225 bn or 5%).
p> The United States was also by far the main investor in the EU (€1 652 bn or 44% of total FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU), ahead of Switzerland (€431 bn or 11%). Together, these two countries accounted for more than half of FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU at the end of 2013.