Ernst & Young’s European attractiveness 2010 survey
June 9, 2010 by France Business Action
The 9th Annual European Attractiveness Survey was released on June 2nd 2010, at the World Investment Conference that took place in La Baule, France. It revealed that, at a country level, very mixed results characterized FDI projects across Europe.
A modest 11% decline in project numbers was revealed by the report, highlighting the fact that, considering the deep worlwide recession, Europe remained in business, totalling 3,303 FDI projects.
The survey revealed a deep dichotomy:
- Central and Eastern Europe, but also most of the smaller countries in Western Europe have seen dramatic drops in project investement.
- Conversely, UK, France and Germany, appearing as bigger and safer economies, have known much more encouraging results.
UK: 1% down
France: 1% up
Italy: 4% up
Germany:7% up
Moreover, let's notice that some countries such as Ukraine, Russia or Turkey bucked the trend of their geographical area, by all posting increases in the number of projects in 2009.
Poland, Hungary and Romania have been particularly affected by the recession and have seen the project numbers falling by 40%. To a lesser extent, Spanish and Irish economies, which historically have had particular appeal to investors, were also hit by the crisis consequences.
The main origins of investments remain the United States with approximately 25%, and the group made of Germany, UK, France and Japan which also accounted for 25%. However, let's notice that all of them saw a decline in both absolute and relative terms.
On the contrary, some countries such as China increased their projects number in Europe.
Optimistic prospects:
Marc Lhermitte, Ernst & Young Advisory partner and the author of the report explains the investment environment is showing signs of improvement from 12 months ago.
To read the entire article, please follow the link:http://www.ey.com/FR/fr/Newsroom/News-releases/Communique-de-presse---2010-European-attractiveness-survey