UNCTAD projects FDI flows to rise in 2014–2016, mainly driven by investments in developed economies as their economic recovery starts to take hold and spread wider.
However, the fragility in some emerging markets and risks related to policy uncertainty and regional conflict could still derail the expected upturn in FDI flows. Moreover, this prediction does not take into account megadeals such as the $130 billion buy-back of shares by Verizon (United States) from Vodafone (United Kingdom) in 2014, which will reduce the equity component of FDI inflows to the United States and affect the global level of FDI inflows.
Results from the World Investment Prospects Survey 2014–2016 (WIPS) support this cautiously optimistic scenario. According to this year’s WIPS, transnational corporations (TNCs) are aware of persistent downturn risks to the global economy and thus expressed uncertainty about the investment outlook for 2014 but had a bright forecast for the following two years. For the year 2016, almost half of the respondents had positive expectations and virtually none felt pessimistic about the investment climate.
As TNCs adopt a cautious optimism for the global outlook, FDI could rise in 2014–2016. However, the fragility in some emerging markets and risks related to policy uncertainty and regional conflict could still derail the expected upturn in FDI flows.
Responses to this year’s survey revealed that firms − mostly based in developed economies − are still cautious about recovery prospects in home economies and possible political uncertainties in emerging markets. This translated into a high share of investors (68 per cent) stating that they were neutral or undecided about the state of the international investment climate for 2014. However, almost half of the respondents (46 per cent) were confident about a positive global climate already for the year 2015, and 48 per cent of them expressed themselves as optimistic for the year 2016 (figure 1). The very low share of pessimistic answers suggests that while investors take into account
possible risks in their investment plans they do not believe risks of a global recession can effectively upset the investment climate.