FDI budgets are set to expand across home regions, though developing-country TNCs have bolder investment plans.
For 2014, global perspectives are uncertain with about half of TNCs across the world being either neutral or undecided about the investment climate. Over the medium term, however, TNCs from developed countries seem to be less uncertain while still retaining some uncertainty about the global investment climate, with more than 56 per cent of them responding that they are undecided or neutral for 2016 investment prospects (figure 8). In contrast, TNCs from the South (developing and transition economies) are more optimistic. Differences in perceptions across country groups are large for all years with the share of companies based in developing and transition economies stating they are optimistic about the global investment climate about 20 percentage points higher than their developed counterparts. Strikingly, in spite of their pronounced uncertainty, TNCs in developed economies were less pessimistic than their peers in developing and transition economies about the global investment climate in 2014 (5 per cent compared with 13 per cent).