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At the end of 2014, the European Union (EU) held Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stocks of €5 749 billion in the rest of the world (+7.6% compared with the end of 2013), while stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU amounted to €4 583 bn (+9.6%), meaning that the EU held a net investment position of €1 166 bn vis-a-vis the rest of the world.
Special purpose entities (SPEs) resident in the EU played a significant role in both outward and inward FDI positions. At the end of 2014, they accounted for half (50%) of the FDI stocks held by the EU abroad and for 63% 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. The information on FDI stocks help to quantify the impact of globalisation and provide a measurement of longstanding economic links between countries. 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
North America, and in particular the United States, represented the main partner of the EU for FDI. At the end of 2014, the United States (€1 985 bn, or 35% of total stocks held by the EU in the rest of the world) was the leading location of EU FDI stocks, followed by Switzerland (€632 bn or 11%), Brazil (€344 bn or 6%) and Canada (€275 bn or 5%). The United States was also by far the main investor in the EU (€1 811 bn, or 40% of total FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU), ahead of Switzerland (€509 bn or 11%). Together, these two countries accounted for slightly over half of FDI stocks held by the rest of the world in the EU at the end of 2014.