According to Eurostat, the EU held Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stocks of €4,983 billion in the rest of the world at the end of 2011, while stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU amounted to €3,807 billion, meaning that the EU is a net investor in the rest of the world.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union published its latest figures on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stocks. Foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks denote the value of the investment at the end of the period. 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. Eurostat highlighted that the figures presented correspond to the latest annual FDI data transmission by the EU Member States. The new rules agreed by the Council on bilateral investment treaties with third countries in July 2012 will also give form to an EU competence for foreign direct investment.

The figures show that at the end of 2011, the EU held Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stocks of €4,983 billion in the rest of the world, while stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU amounted to €3,807 billion, meaning that the EU is a net investor in the rest of the world. Both stocks held by the EU27 and those held by the rest of the world have risen steadily between 2008 and 2011, increasing by about 50%, while EU stocks held in another Member State have risen by around 20% during the same period.

As regards FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU, the leading partners are similar, the main investors being the United States (€1,344 billion or 35% of total stocks held by the rest of the world), Switzerland (467 billion or 12%), Japan (144 billion or 4%), Canada (138 billion or 4%), Brazil (78 billion or 2%), Norway (75 billion or 2%), Singapore (67 billion or 2%), Hong Kong (64 billion or 2%) and Russia (53 billion or 1%). As regards EU FDI stocks in the rest of the world, the main destinations at the end of 2011 were the United States, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.