Figures released by fDi Markets show that there were 15,558 greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in 2019 worldwide compared to 15,561 projects in 2018. The amount of greenfield FDI reached $795.7bn in 2019, constituting a decline of 15% from 2018. The Asia Pacific region attracted $256bn, and accounted for 32.2% of greenfield FDI in 2019. Europe followed with $214.1bn (27%), then the Middle East & Africa (ME&A) region with $115.2bn (14.5%), Latin America & the Caribbean with $108bn (13.6%), and North America with $102.4bn (13%). In parallel, Europe was the largest source of greenfield FDI with $325.5bn, or 41% of the total, followed by Asia Pacific with $228.5bn (28.7%), North America with $150.2bn (19%), ME&A with $71.6bn (9%), and Latin America & the Caribbean with $20bn (2.5%). On a sectoral basis, the coal, oil & gas sector attracted $123bn in greenfield FDI, or 15% of the total in 2019, followed by the renewable energy industry with $92.2bn (12%), and the real estate sector with $71.6bn (9%). fDi Markets indicated that the number of greenfield FDI projects decreased by 15% year-on-year in the first two months of 2020 and by 50% in March 2020 from the same month of 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic. As such, it projected the number of greenfield FDI projects to drop by 40% in 2020. It said that sectors such as tourism, airlines, leisure and entertainment, luxury goods, and oil & gas have been hit the hardest due to a significant collapse in demand in these sectors. However, it noted that demand increased in sectors such as e-commerce, e-health, medical products, video conferencing and basic consumer goods and food & beverage products.
Source: fDi Markets, Byblos Research