INVESTMENT: 62% OF INFLOWS FROM ASIA.

A stunning 62% of the net Euro 12.4 billion foreign direct investment inflows into European Union came from Asia in 1996, according to figures released by the EU's Statistical Agency Eurostat on January 25. The EU collected Euro 44.4 billion in income receipts on FDI assets, and this was offset by income payments of Euro 32.1 billion to non-EU countries on FDI liabilities, the Eurostat report said. However, one statistician admitted that the high share of Asian investment had tailed off in more recent figures, in the wake of the Asian economic and financial crisis.

Eurostat said EU investors saw over Euro 7.6 billion of net FDI receipts coming from Asia, up 20% from 1995. Japan was an exception to the trend with EU net FDI earnings falling by 25% compared to 1995. Overall, the EU's net income flows were positive with most partners and regions: the United States and Switzerland were noted exceptions with FDI income payments exceeding receipts by roughly a third in both cases. In fact, over half of the EU's receipts of FDI income - Euro 24.4 billion - came from America, the US itself accounting for Euro 17.6 billion. Hong Kong ranked as the top contributor to net EU FDI receipts, and not only in Asia. EU investors received 21% (Euro 2.6 billion) of total net earnings from there. Australia and Singapore each returned a net Euro 1.8 billion and Brazil Euro 1.3 billion. Within non-EU Europe, net earnings from Norway doubled in 1996 to reach over Euro 0.8 billion. Net receipts from Hungary rose tenfold between 1995 and 1996 to exceed Euro 500,000 million, and those from the Czech Republic also saw rapid growth to top Euro 0.25 billion. And the report says that every seventh Euro of net EU FDI earnings in 1996 came from African countries, with South Africa (Euro 0.75 billion) the key player. With an 11% rise over 1995, FDI income of non-EU direct investors in the Single Market grew three percentage points slower...