Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2022

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2022, Annual National Accounts

Get the data: PXStat BPA34, PXStat ISQ01

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

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2022

Get the data: OECD Stat

As illustrated in Figure 1.2, foreign investors have a significant role in Irish business and make Ireland one of the most globalised nations in Europe. The discrepancy between the figure for Ireland here and in Figure 1.1 is due to vintage issues that will be resolved in revisions. Figure 1.3 shows FDI flows as a percentage of GDP. For a breakdown of these flows and positions by geography and investment type, see the 2022 Foreign Direct Investment release. Figures for Luxembourg (1460 in Figure 1.2 and -511 in Figure 1.3) are omitted so that other figures can be seen more clearly.

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2022

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 67% of Ireland’s inward FDI. This shows how highly concentrated Irish FDI is given that there are thousands of firms that receive FDI in Ireland.

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2022

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.

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2022

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 Bermuda is redacted for confidentiality purposes.

Source Publications: Foreign Direct Investment Annual 2022