Asia-Pacific, in particular, posted a very strong year as China and other major economies in the region lifted the harsh restrictions introduced to contain the pandemic and finally revamped the FDI deal flow.
Foreign investors announced 16,427 cross-border projects worth $1337bn in 2023, the report shows. That represents a 1.1% decline and a 4.4% increase from a year earlier, respectively.
These are historically high levels of investment. The number of announced projects is not far from the pre-pandemic peak of 2019 (17,078), while committed capex has been the strongest since the global financial crisis even when figures are adjusted for inflation.
Beyond sectors, global greenfield FDI has spread unevenly across geographies in 2023. Overall FDI activity, as measured by the number of announced projects, fell in Europe and North America when compared with 2022, while it soared in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. Asia-Pacific, in particular, posted a very strong year as China and other major economies in the region lifted the harsh restrictions introduced to contain the pandemic and finally revamped the FDI deal flow.
That also allowed the region to reclaim its role as a major source of capital. Chinese outbound greenfield FDI reached record highs last year, but here too it is a nuanced story. Unlike in the past, most of the Chinese outbound FDI went to the developing world as Chinese companies pivot away from the west to set up shop in more aligned countries and nearshoring hubs serving the big markets in North America and Europe.
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