Eurostat

 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) encompasses all kind of cross-border investment made by an entity resident in one economy (direct investor) to acquire a lasting interest in an enterprise operating in another economy (direct investment enterprise). FDI is one of the five main functional categories of investment used in international accounts to classify either the Internal Investment Positions (IIP) or the Balance of Payment (BOP) statements of a given economy (vis-à-vis the rest of the world). Foreign Direct Investment positions show at a point in time (generally, end of a reference year) the value of financial direct investment assets of residents of an economy on non-residents, and financial direct investment liabilities of residents of an economy to non-resident. The net FDI position is the difference between assets and liabilities, which is also equivalent (under the directional principle presentation) to the difference between FDI positions abroad and in the reporting economy. The net FDI position represents either a net FDI claim or a net FDI liability to the rest of the world.        Foreign direct investment transactions summarize all economic direct investment interactions between the residents and the non-residents during a given period. Two types of FDI transactions can be identified (within the BOP framework) according to the economic meaning they convey: FDI income is a distributive transaction showing amounts payable and receivable between resident and non-resident entities in return for providing financial direct investment assets to the rest of the world, or incurring direct investment liabilities vis-à-vis the rest of the world.FDI flows refer to financial transactions showing the net acquisition or disposal of financial assets and liabilities involved in direct investment relationships.FDI positions, FDI income and FDI flows are disseminated by Eurostat together with estimated EU FDI aggregates (directly produced by Eurostat).  Other FDI changes that are not transaction changes, such as volume, value or prices changes, are not treated by Eurostat under the scope of annual FDI statistics. Annual FDI data are disseminated by Eurostat according to the directional principle (see sub section 3.4 below). The geographical allocation is made according to the economic residence of the immediate direct investor or immediate direct investment company (immediate counterparts). FDI data classified according to ultimate investor or host economy are not yet available at Eurostat (see 12.1).  International Guides recommend the classification of FDI data both according to the activity of the direct investor and the activity of the direct investment enterprise. In practice, it is very difficult for national compilers to have both classifications. In that case, the recommended classification by activity is that of the direct investment enterprise. On the outward side, national compilers are not always able to classify their FDI data according to the activity of the direct investment enterprise. In that case, the classification used as a proxy is the activity of the direct investor.  Alongside with International Trade in Services Statistics (ITSS) and Foreign Affiliates Trade Statistics (FATS), FDI data are relevant to monitor the overall effectiveness and competitiveness of different economies in the globalised world.