Economics
Foreign Direct Investment to Plunge as Much as 40%, UN Projects
- FDI may retreat below $1 trillion for first time since 2005
- Drop in cross-border flows could extend by 5% to 10% next year
This article is for subscribers only.
The United Nations forecasts foreign direct investment globally will fall by as much as 40% this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and continue to slump in 2021, hitting developing nations hardest.
The lockdown measures are slowing investment projects and will lead multinational companies to reassess plans, according to a report released Tuesday by the UN’s trade and development arm. FDI will drop 30% to 40% this year and won’t begin to recover until 2022, and then only slowly, the agency said, cautioning that the the forecast is subject to uncertainty due to Covid-19.