France is the new sick man of Europe: the Global Investment Trends Monitor just published by Cnuced, the UN body that deals with trade and development, has in fact established that the country that saw the greatest fall in foreign direct investment in 2013 was precisely that of the Eiffel Tower. In Hollande's country they have literally plummeted: -77% in the past year, or just 4,1 billion euros, much less than Spain and even Italy. Le Monde himself admitted that the data is "worrying", especially considering that it is in sharp contrast with the rest of the planet: in 2013, FDI increased globally by 11%, reaching a total of 1.461 billion dollars.
"They have regained their pre-crisis average levels", add the analysts of the Cnuced, specifying that the podium of the best is made up of the United States (159 billion dollars), China (127 billion dollars) and Russia (94 billion dollars) , with the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong completing the top-5. The loss of attractiveness of the transalpine economic system is further confirmed by the fact that even considering only developed countries, foreign direct investment rose by 12%, with some peaks such as the +61% of Japan (2,8 billion dollars) and despite a few other flops such as those of Australia (-28% to 40 billion), New Zealand (-75% to 500 million dollars), and South America (-6,8% to 134 billion dollars).
The EU itself has instead returned to being competitive: +37,7% in 2013, with Germany quadrupling compared to the previous year (to 32,3 billion dollars), the boom in Spain (+37% to 37,1 billion dollars) and above all in Italy itself, which in 2012 had collapsed to just 100 million dollars, only to now go back to 9,9, 20 billion dollars. The countries that have seen their attractiveness grow the most in the Old Continent are Ireland, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg: all four are now among the top 53 in the world, in the ranking which always sees Great Britain as the best European, ninth with XNUMX billion of dollars.
Hollande's France therefore remains a disturbing exception, and the president - apart from the personal troubles of this period - seems to be aware of it, so much so that in his speech at the beginning of the year he was keen to say: "Foreign investments are always welcome to France: if you are undecided about where to open your factory, come and do it with us”. Will the appeal be enough? Not at the moment, and above all it should be done first of all to the French companies themselves: according to the Trendeo study, in 2013 263 industrial sites across the Alps were closed, and too few were opened at the same time. Only the misery of 134, -28% compared to the year before. At the lowest since 2009, in the midst of the crisis.
Read it studio of the Cnuced
