The investment foreign exchange in the world decreased by 24% last year, to the figure of US$1.286 trillion, a reduction influenced by the massive withdrawals of capital in a telecommunications operator based in Luxembourg and also the drop in flows in the direction of China.
In a report published this Friday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) noted that if the particular case of Luxembourg were excluded, which had a negative balance of investments of US$322,000 million compared to another positive balance of US$25,000 million in 2021, the overall drop would have been limited to 5%.
The authors of the study indicated that the operations of takeovers and mergers of companies followed the downward trend last year, “possibly” due to the hardening financial conditions (rising interest rates), geopolitical tensions (with the war in Ukraine) and fears of a recession.
USA The US and China remained, as usual, in the first two positions as recipients of international investment, standing out from the rest, but in both cases with sharp declines that the OECD partly linked to a slowdown in new investment projects.
United States captured $318 billion21% less, while China received US$180 billion, 48% less.
He rose to third position Brazil with US$85,000 million and was followed by Australia with US$65,000 million, Canada with US$53,000, India with US$50,000, Sweden with US$48,000 and France with $42,000.
flows of investment Global sales grew by 24% in the first half of last year before falling by 58% in the second half. If you analyze the evolution in this last part of 2022, the subsidence was 95% in the fourth quarter.
As regards the countries of origin of the investments international, six surpassed the bar of the $100,000 million: United States ($403,000), Japan ($162,000), China ($150,000)Germany ($143,000), the United Kingdom ($130,000) and Australia ($120,000).
The flows from the OECD decreased by 14% as a whole, to US$1.1 trillion, but this is explained by the particular case of Luxembourg. If that country were left out, they would have increased by 9%.
The study authors acknowledge that the prospects for this year are uncertain, since the operations of mergers and company acquisitions have fallen again in the first quarter.
However, the activity of “green” investments (in favor of the ecological transition) maintained a positive evolution in 2022, although the number of projects remained below pre-covid levels.