Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2021

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

Get the data: PXStat BPA34, PXStat NQQ35

The OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment (4^th Edition, BMD4) prescribes a number of indicators for 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 and inward FDI flows expressed as a percentage of GDP at current prices (Figures 1.2 and 1.3). As these measures focus on the investment, they reveal how much foreign ownership exists in an economy.

Get the data: OECD Stat

As illustrated in Figure 1.2, foreign investors have a significant role in Irish business. Figure 1.3 shows FDI flows in 2021 as a percentage of GDP. FDI flows for 2021 were up from the previous year. As seen in both Figures 1.2 and 1.3, Ireland is one of the most globalised nations in Europe. For a breakdown of these flows and positions by geography and investment type see the 2021 Foreign Direct Investment release. 

The discrepancy between the figure for Ireland here and in Figure 1.1 is due to a vintage issue that will be resolved in upcoming revisions. Figures for Luxembourg (3837 in Figure 1.2 and -318 in Figure 1.3) are omitted so that other figures can be seen more clearly.

Get the data: OECD Stat

Figure 1.4 illustrates a distributional analysis of FDI 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 65% of Ireland’s inward FDI. This shows how highly concentrated Irish FDI is given that there are thousands of firms that receive FDI investments in Ireland.

Figure 1.5 shows Irish FDI abroad by an ultimate controlling parent presentation. Figure 1.1 shows that Irish FDI abroad can be higher, for certain years, than the FDI position in Ireland. This is determined to a large extent by  Redomiciled PLCs in Ireland. For confidentiality purposes, data in 2015, 2016, 2017 are redacted for US and other ultimately owned Irish resident investment abroad.

Get the data:  PXStat BPQ26

The direct investment figures depicted on this publication's infographic were presented according to the location of the ultimate controlling parent. The FDI positions of the top ultimate investing countries are presented in Figure 1.6. As illustrated, the United States is the biggest investor in Ireland, accounting for over €900 billion of our inward FDI positions. The figure for the Netherlands is redacted for confidentiality purposes.

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual