Inward investment into Europe drops by 12% in 2001

US investment down by 26%

The Ernst & Young's recently published European Investment Monitor revealed that the number of new investment projects into Europe in 2001 fell by 12% on 2000 figures. Countries that performed poorly in 2001 included the UK, France, Ireland, Switzerland and The Netherlands. Sweden, Finland and most of Central and Eastern Europe did better.

The key statistics from EIM are as follows:

The number of new investment projects in Europe fell from 2,243 in 2000 to 1,974 in 2001 a decline of 12%. This resulted in with 340,000 new and safeguarded jobs, down 9% on 2000 (370,000).

Big losers were the UK (34% decline from 575 projects to 377), France (25% fall in projects invested giving a 2001 share of 13%), Ireland (46% decline from 113 to 61) the Netherlands (37% fall from 105 to 66) and Switzerland 47% (45 to 24 projects).

In 2001 there were 733 new investment projects into Europe from the US, a 26 % decline from 985 in 2000. US market share fell from 44% in 2000, to 37% in 2001.

London retained top spot in the regional tables with 94 new projects in 2001 (down 48% on 2000), Catalonia was second on 86 with Paris 61 in third. Regions entering the top ranks for the first time include Madrid, Helsinki, Moscow and Stockholm.

By sectors the stars of 2000 - telecoms, computers, electronics and business services all fell off in terms of projects in 2001 by 48%, 49%, 22% and 18% respectively.

The top performing sectors of 2001 were pharmaceuticals with an 18% rise in the number of projects, automotive (including components) 9% and transport 21%.

Investment projects in the manufacturing held up well across Europe in 2001 with a decline of only 3% (compare an overall decline of 12%) reflecting the fact that most investment was either intra-EU and from the Far East.

France was the market leader with 16% of all manufacturing projects and the UK second place with 12%. Both however actually experienced a decline in projects between 2000 and 2001, 35 and 36 respectively. Other countries to experience a fall in manufacturing projects included Ireland (54%), Belgium (48%) and Poland (43%). Successful countries included Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Romania and Russia.

(source: Ernst & Young)

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