THE LEVEL of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Ireland increased by €30.4 billion to €169.3 billion last year, new figures published by the Central Statistics Office show.
The jump in FDI is mainly a result of an increase of €26 billion in the level of equity capital and reinvested earnings to €210.8 billion, the CSO said.
The Netherlands appeared to be the biggest investor in the Irish economy last year, accounting for €37.5 billion of the €169.3 billion total, while the United States contributed €4.3 billion.
However, CSO statistician Stephen McDonagh attributed the high amount of investment coming from the Netherlands to the US, saying he was “reasonably certain a lot of investment from the Netherlands originated in the United States”.
“It is most likely that American companies based in the Netherlands are channelling money through there for tax reasons.”
Outside the Netherlands, Luxembourg was the biggest source of foreign investment in Ireland in 2009, pumping €23.8 billion into the economy. The UK and France were next investing €19.6 billion and €11.6 billion respectively. South American countries meanwhile accounted for €18.6 billion of direct foreign investment.
On the other side of the coin, the value of Irish investments overseas increased to almost €190 billion, a jump of almost €70 billion.
Mr McDonagh said he was surprised by the robust figures and increases in investments coming into and leaving Ireland, saying “you’d expect to see a significant drop-off because of the recession”.
