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Net foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks held by the European Union (EU) in the rest of the world amounted to €6 894 bn at the end of 2015, up by 14.9% compared with the end of 2014.

Meanwhile, investment stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU rose even more strongly to €5 842 bn at the end of 2015 (+22.8%). However, the EU maintained a net investment position of slightly above €1 000 bn vis-a-vis the rest of the world.

Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) resident in the EU played a major role, accounting for 52.5% of the total EU FDI stocks held abroad and for 62.7% of the FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU.

These data, subject to revision, are issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. FDI stocks help to quantify the impact of globalisation and measure longstanding economic links between countries (according to immediate counterpart criteria). They provide an indication of the relative importance of a country's economic presence abroad, or that of foreign partners in the reporting entity, measured in terms of FDI capital.

More than a third of EU FDI stocks held in the USA
At the end of 2015, the United States absorbed 37.2% of the total FDI stocks held by the EU in the rest of the world (€2 561 bn), far ahead of Switzerland (€829 bn or 12.0%), Bermuda (€353 bn or 5.1%), Brazil (€327 bn or 4.7%), China (€288 bn or 4.2%) and Canada (€249 bn or 3.6%).

In the reverse direction, United States' direct investors increased their presence in the EU to €2 436 bn of FDI stocks at the end of 2015 (or 41.7% of total FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU). They were followed by those from Switzerland (€627 bn or 10.7%), the offshore financial centres of Bermuda (€503 bn or 8.6%) and Jersey (€227 bn or 3.9%), as well as Canada (€228 bn or 3.9%).

Source: EuroStat