According to new figures, Ireland’s amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects dropped by 8 per cent to 203, last year. The fall comes as FDI fell to 6.344 projects in Europe, with capital investment spending down 11 per cent to $214 billion (€ 181.6 billion).
The Republic ranked seventh in FDI with $11 billion in capital investment in Europe, giving it a 5 per cent regional market share.
In 2018 the Republic ranked 8th in Europe, spending $10.2 billion on 228 projects. And now the state ranks 9th, with a total of 1,271 projects managing to give Britain an overall national market share of 20 per cent.
As a result of the Covid-19 crisis, the consultancy company EY recently predicted a 20 per cent fall in state FDI projects.
Last year, the state ranked eighth out of 47 countries in the ranking of the most attractive European locations for FDI.
According to a study published by FDI Intelligence, part of the Financial Times Group, Germany was the second most popular FDI destination in Europe with 702 projects. Then comes Spain with 658 projects, France with 500, and Poland with 373 of the top five.