Foreign investment increases to €22bn

FOREIGN direct investment into Ireland increased in value last year with just over €22.35 billion coming into the country from overseas companies.

That figure — published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office — compares favourably with recent years. The investment flow figures include equity investment, re-investments in existing operations here and other capital, which chiefly refers to loans between an owner company and its Irish affiliate.

In 2006, there was a negative investment flow of €4.42bn, while 2005 saw a negative flow of €25.5bn. These were chiefly down to loans made by foreign-owned companies in Ireland to their overseas affiliate companies, although both years also saw strong levels of re-investment in operations here.

The 2007 figures from the CSO show that the investment inflow from US-owned companies amounted to €16.5bn, while there was an outflow of investment to the tune of €2.56bn from British firms.

The overall stocks of overseas investments into Ireland, as of the end of last December — dating back several years — amounted to just over €131.4bn.

As a geographic breakdown of this stock, about €8bn comes from Britain, nearly €20bn comes directly from the US, while Holland comes to about €33bn.

This is primarily because so much US company investment is made via The Netherlands.

In terms of foreign investment from Ireland overseas, there was an outflow of investment amounting to just under €15.2bn in 2007.

Earlier this week, figures from the US Government-affiliated body the Bureau of Economic Analysis, indicated that the Irish-based operations of American companies made combined profits of $48bn (€37.6bn) in 2005 — the latest year for which information is available.

In its 2007 annual report, published earlier this year, IDA Ireland said that the immediate future for foreign investment into Ireland remained strong, despite worsening economic conditions.