Extract

The geographical clustering of FDI is a prominent feature of the second global economy. In 2011 two-thirds of the stock of world inward FDI was located in developed countries, but it was far from evenly spread. For example, the small island nation of Ireland had about the same stock of inward FDI as Japan. The unevenness was even greater in the case of the FDI located in developing countries. In 2011, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Singapore accounted for four-fifths of world inward FDI stock outside the developed world. Among the larger emerging economies with much less inward FDI were India and Turkey. In 1990 inward FDI as a share of GDP had been low by international standards in both countries; the ratio in India had been 0.5 percent and in Turkey 5.5 percent. By 2011 the inward FDI stocks of India and Turkey were $20 billion and $14 billion respectively, which represented only 1.6 percent of world FDI, but the ratio to GDP had risen to 10.4 percent and 18 percent respectively. By comparison, the world average was 30 percent, and in some fast-growing emerging economies like Malaysia and Thailand it was around 40 percent.