Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2017, National Income and Expenditure 2017

Get the data: StatBank BPA34, StatBank N1724

The OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment (4^th Edition, BMD4) prescribes a number of indicators which indicate the level of globalisation in an economy. The following metrics allow for cross-country comparisons based on the relative importance of FDI: inward FDI positions in reporting economies (Figure 1.2); and inward FDI flows expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices (Figure 1.3). As these measures focus on the investment into an economy, they reveal how much foreign ownership exists in an economy.

Get the data: OECD Statistics  

As illustrated in Figure 1.2, Ireland is a highly globalised economy with foreign investors having a significant role in Irish business. However, Figure 1.3 shows inward FDI flows in 2017 which were reduced from previous years as a percentage of GDP. This reduction in inward FDI flows occurred in both 2016 and 2017; it was predominantly the result of decreased investment from the United States in both years. The decrease is highlighted in greater detail in the Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2017. 

Get the data: OECD Statistics

Figure 1.4 illustrates a distributional analysis of Foreign Direct Investment into Ireland. Firms are sorted by the size of their inward FDI investments and then grouped. As illustrated, the first group of 25 firms makes up 70% of Ireland’s FDI inward. This is a high concentration given that there are thousands of firms that receive FDI investments in Ireland.

Figure 1.1 shows that Irish FDI abroad is often higher than the FDI position in Ireland. This is determined to a large extent by Redomiciled PLCs in Ireland. Figure 1.5 shows that these companies own more than half of Irish FDI stock abroad.

Get the data: StatBank BPQ26 

The direct investment figures depicted on this publication's infographic were presented according to the location of the ultimate controlling parent (UCP) to conceptually align FDI statistics with the employment and wage statistics. The FDI positions of the top ultimate investing countries are offered in Figure 1.6. The investment positions from Ireland as ultimate investor, at €95.5bn primarily represents former American/Bermuda based corporate inversion enterprises (redomiciled PLCs) which are now located in Ireland. As illustrated in Figure 1.6, the United States is the biggest investor in Ireland, accounting for over €500bn in our FDI positions inward.

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2017, International Accounts Q4 2018

In Figure 1.7, the change in investment between 2012 and 2017 by region is shown. The Americas show the largest increase in investment into Ireland while other regions have also show increased investment into Ireland.

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2017, International Accounts Q4 2018