Business And Leadership: Ireland’s net total FDI position in 2008 stood at €2.4bn

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Ireland’s net total FDI position in 2008 stood at €2.4bn

27.11.2009
Ireland had a net total foreign direct investment (FDI) position of €2.4bn for 2008, largely due to increased loan outflows to US and Dutch affiliates, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has said.

According to the CSO’s set of FDI annual figures, 2008’s increase on the end-2007 overall position of €101,936m was mainly accounted for by investment in European enterprises, which was up almost 22pc on the 2007 level to €89,646m.

This growth was essentially accounted for by the UK (€37,699m) and Luxembourg (€13,301m) and reflected increases in both the Equity Capital & RIE (€77,946m) and the Other Capital (€11,700m) components of European (mostly EU) FDI stocks.

However, the CSO figures showed that the level of total FDI investment into Ireland decreased to €120,954m at the end of 2008, compared to the €138,362m invested during the previous year.

This fall in FDI in 2008 was mostly due to a €6bn reduction in the level of FDI equity/reinvested earnings to €175,428m, combined with the impact of a significant increase of €11.5bn in outflows of other capital, mostly

loans, of €54,474m from foreign-owned enterprises in Ireland to their affiliates abroad.

The CSO figures also showed that of the total direct investment abroad by Irish investors during 2008 (€9,217m), half was to EU member states, mainly in the UK (€4,349m) with the bulk of the other 50pc going to the Americas (€4,356m).